


Fairy Tail Rewritten

by Cintalee



Series: Fairy Tail [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Eisenwald, F/M, First story, Galuna Island Arc, God Slayer Magic, Lullaby Arc (Fairy Tail), Main Story, Phantom Lord Arc, Story Rewritten, dont know how to tag, i'll tag more as I go with the story.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2020-11-08 03:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 59,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20828555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cintalee/pseuds/Cintalee
Summary: Imagine Fairy Tail with a brand new character in it from the beginning.This is the story of Kairi Dreyar and the beginning of her adventures with her guild, Fairy Tail.I've worked on this for years, and felt like it was finally time to post it somewhere.





	1. Welcome to Fairy Tail

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've ever posted publicly, so at least be kind. Let me know what you think! I'd love some feedback on it.

_In a land far, far away lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small, peaceful nation of seventeen million, and a place filled with magic. Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace, for most, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some, however, magic is an art, and they have devoted their lives to its practice. These are the wizards; banded together into magical guilds, they apply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore, but there is a certain guild in a certain town that soars high above the rest, one from which countless legends have been born. A guild that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. Its name... is Fairy Tail._

The guild hall was in a lively and busy morning, though it’s not like it’d never been like this. The Fairy Tail Guild had always been excitable, even from the day I officially joined it had always been fun. Almost everyone got along with everyone, but a few people did butt heads every now and again.  
“Hey! Did you hear Natsu destroyed the port of Hargeon?” I questioned the raven haired male that was sitting next to me. The news I had just placed on him, seemed to be the talk of the whole guild, our very own Natsu Dragneel burnt out most of the port of Hargeon just last night.  
“Why does he have to destroy everything?” sighed the male. He had seemingly tried to ignore me, but knowing it was useless, he looked at me. I grinned at him in response.  
“It’s Natsu, it’s in his blood.” I replied.  
“It’s in his blood to be the most annoying person I’ve ever met.”  
“Come on Gray, the two of you have known each other for years!” I smiled at my boyfriend, but he just glared at me. To anyone who didn’t know Gray, they would probably think that the two of us weren’t even friends with the death glare he just gave me with his dark blue eyes, except that we teens were very much in love. I smiled back at him, looking at his spiky black hair covering most of his forehead and half of his eyes, which could’ve made the look he was giving me even scarier, but it didn’t affect me.  
“You’re so scary Gray…” I laughed, mocking him. Gray sighed and looked away, continuing to munch on his food.

“We made it back alive!” shouted a voice from the doorway as it was kicked in fiercely. It was Natsu, who had come back from his short trip to Hargeon. You could always tell when Natsu was home, because he’s not a quiet person, at all. Natsu’s a lean, muscular young man. He’s only a year older than me, at seventeen and he’s always rubbed that fact in my face ever since we’ve met. Natsu’s skin is a slightly tanned tone, his eyes are black, and he has spiky pink-coloured hair. His red Fairy Tail Guild Mark is located just below his right shoulder. He was wearing an open sleeveless, gold-trimmed black waistcoat. He had white knee-length trousers on too, with a scale-patterned white scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. Natsu’s voice was closely followed by his best friend Happy, a blue flying cat; a cat that hatched from an egg, a long time ago.  
“We’re home!” Happy cried out. Mostly everyone called out a greeting to the pair, but behind the two males was a blonde haired, brown eyed girl who looked extremely nervous. I couldn’t recall ever seeing her here before. She must be wanting to join. She was wearing a sleeveless white and blue button up shirt with a dark blue mini skirt. She had a leather belt hanging on her hips and a whip connected to that. She had knee-high black boots on too.  
“So I heard you went all out in Hargeon Natsu.” called out one of the members. “Had to go starting trouble.” Natsu charged at him, kicking him into the wall with a strong force.  
“You lied to me about that Salamander!” Natsu shouted. “I’m gonna kick your butt!”  
“Don’t get mad at me, I’m not the one to blame here, I just passed along a rumour I heard.” shouted back the wizard. In the middle of the hall the blonde girl stood there, completely dumbfounded as to why Natsu would hit his own guild mate. It happens often, so none of us care anymore.  
“It was just a rumour?” Natsu cried out.  
“You wanna fight?” the two started throwing punches, which made three quarters of the guild start too.  
“Oh man…” I sighed, rolling my eyes, as I placed my chin on my hand. I looked over to Gray, waiting for him to get involved in the fight too. In my line of eyesight, I could see that the blonde girl was still standing there; in the middle of it all, utterly confused.  
“So Natsu finally made it back huh?” Gray muttered, while standing up. I focused back on him, and even though I shouldn’t have been surprised about Gray suddenly lacking some clothes, when I saw him in his boxers, I blushed, not entirely sure how he does it in about two seconds. The dark blue mark of Fairy Tail was showing proudly on his right pectoral. Gray sauntered forward to where Natsu was fighting. “It’s time to settle things once and for all!” Gray announced.  
“Gray please! Put on your clothes!” I called after him.  
“Yeah Gray, your clothes?” Cana, one of the few female mages in this guild called out to him from the bar where she was drinking some wine.  
“I don’t have time for that!” Gray shouted, looking back at me briefly, before turning back to the group of fighting mages. I sighed softly once more, thinking back on why Gray’s always stripped down for no reason, definitely a habit he picked up from before he joined the guild, I didn’t know for sure since he’d never said why he did it.  
“Cana? You’re not planning on joining the fight?” I questioned her, standing up to walk over to the bar, on the way I passed the new blonde girl on the way, and gave her a quick smile. Cana was two years older than me at eighteen years old, but she was probably Fairy Tail’s heaviest drinker. She’s tall and slim with sandy tanned skin. Cana has long, mid-back length brown hair with varying shades of colour and large brown eyes. She usually wore a light blue bikini top, and a pair of maroon Capri pants. Cana’s Guild Mark was a black mark on the left side of her waist.  
“I’d rather just drink.” Cana replied as I sat next to her on a barstool. “You see, I don’t date the men around here because they don’t have enough class.” Cana explained as she lifted up a full barrel of alcohol and began drinking straight from it.  
“Hmm Cana, to be honest I don’t think it’s the men…” I replied softly, supressing a sigh, looking back at the now, full-on fistfight.  
“Come here and fight me Natsu!” I heard Gray shout in the midst of fighting.  
“Not until you put some clothes on!” Natsu shouted back.  
“It’s only noon and you boys are already whining like spoiled babies!” accused a member; Elfman Strauss. Elfman is a large, muscular man with tan skin, whose height causes him to tower over all of the guild members. His long white hair is kept styled upwards in long, wavy spikes, his dark eyes possess no visible eyebrows and his rectangular, elongated face has a stitched scar running down its right side, crossing his right eye. His black Fairy Tail Guild Mark was located on the left part of his neck. He likes to spout manly nonsense, and thinks his fists are the strongest. Elfman walked up to the duo of Gray and Natsu, yelling at him, but Gray and Natsu hit him together, and sent him back a fair few feet.  
“What’s wrong with these people? There’s not one sane person in this place.” muttered the blonde girl.  
“That’s definitely true!” I replied to her comment, noticing that Mirajane Strauss was walking up behind the new girl, with a big smile herself.  
“Hello. Are you new here?” she asked. The new girl freaked out in happiness. Mirajane was Elfman’s older sister. She had long, white hair which curls slightly at the ends, with a short, upward ponytail obtained by gathering and tying the hair that sometimes covered her forehead. She has large blue eyes and her white Fairy Tail Guild Mark is located on her left thigh. Mirajane was widely known for her beauty, being Fairy Tail’s poster girl and having posed many times for the ever popular Sorcerer Weekly Magazine.  
“Shouldn’t we really try to stop them?” the new girl asked.  
“It’s always like that around here. I just leave them alone.” Mira replied. Seconds later Elfman landed on Mira, leaving her unconscious. The new girl was about to freak out when Gray bumped into her, completely nude. I looked to the left a little more and saw that Natsu was holding Gray’s boxers with a smirk on his lips.  
“Give me back my underwear!” Gray shouted.  
“Natsu! Give him his clothes back!” I squeaked out, freaking out as Gray kindly asked Lucy for hers. She rightfully clocked him in the face too. They were all truly getting into the fight, and they soon started using their magic to fight too.  
“I hope Gramps gets here soon.” I muttered to myself.  
“Do they always fight like this?” the new girl squeaked out, holding Happy up in front of her, almost as if she was using the small animal like a shield.  
“Yeah.” I replied.  
“Why don’t you seem worried about it?” she asked as a bang resonated through the hall. Everyone looked and saw that it was the gigantic Guild Master.  
“Will you fools stop bickering like children!” he growled. Everyone easily paused without fault.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were still here Master.”  
“Did you say Master?” new girl squealed, completely shocked. Natsu started laughing.  
“Man talk about being a bunch of babies! Looks like I won this one!” Natsu shouted, but his ‘victory’ was short-lived as the Guild Master squished him with his foot.  
“Well, it seems we have a new recruit.” the Guild Master said as he saw the new girl, next to me.  
“Yes sir.” she squeaked out. The Guild Master reverted back to his natural size, which to be honest is about at my thigh’s height. He’s a short old man in reality. The Master was wearing a white t-shirt with the Fairy Tail Guild Mark on it. Over that was an orange jacket and matching shorts with a striped orange and blue jester hat.  
“Nice to meet you.” he smiled.  
“He’s tiny! This little guy is really in charge here?”  
“Of course he is!” spoke Mirajane in her high pitched voice. “Allow me to introduce the Fairy Tail Guild Master, Makarov.” Master Makarov jumped up onto the second floor’s railing and cleared his throat.  
“You’ve gone and done it again! You bunch of clods. Just take a look at how much paperwork the Magic Council sent me this time. This is the biggest pile of complaints yet!” Makarov reprimanded. The Magic Council is our governmental leaders of all the legal guilds. “Have you lost your minds? All you kids are good for is getting the higher-ups mad at me.” Makarov was shaking in an angry tremble. “However…” he set fire to all the pieces of paper. “I say the heck to with the Magic Council.” Master Makarov threw the flames in the air, and Natsu, who was a Fire Dragon Slayer Wizard ate it up. “Now listen up, any power that surpasses reason still comes from reason, right? Magic isn’t some kind of miraculous power, it is a talent that only works when the flow of energy inside of us and the flow of energy in the natural world are in perfect synchronization. To perform magic, one must have a strong mind and the ability to focus, it should take over your being and come pouring out of your soul! If all we do is worry about following rules then our magic will never progress. Don’t let those blowhards on the Magic Council scare you, follow the path you believe in! Because that’s what makes the Fairy Tail Guild number one!” Makarov pointed his index finger and thumb up in the familiar way that Fairy Tail does and we all followed with a happy cheer.

Soon after, the new blonde girl whose name was Lucy had a brand new Guild Mark on her right hand, it came out pink. It turned out Lucy was a Celestial Wizard, owning several gate keys that brought forth Celestial Spirits to fight for her.  
“There, now you’re a member of the Fairy Tail Guild.” Mirajane smiled. Lucy smiled and held her hand tightly, and ran off in the direction of Natsu, who was staring at the job board, where wizards in every guild take on different kinds of jobs for a sum of money or other goods in return. Every guild has one with some regular jobs, and another for S-Class Wizards, those are more dangerous, but pay much better.  
“Natsu! Look! I got my Fairy Tail mark!” Lucy eagerly showed Natsu her mark, but he looked bored.  
“Oh yeah? That’s cool, welcome to the guild Loony.” Natsu replied.  
“It’s Lucy!” I, who had been watching the interaction looked away from the two of them and watched Gray as he looked for his clothes.  
“How come my dad hasn’t come back?” asked a young child. My attention changed again, looking at Romeo Conbolt, he was a young boy with straight dark hair, with his bangs mostly covering his forehead. He has large dark eyes and a small round nose. He wasn’t yet a member of Fairy Tail, but his dad is. When Romeo’s dad, Macao, was on a job, I usually babysit him, as a side job to being a Guild Wizard.  
“You’re starting to work on my nerves Romeo.” Master Makarov replied. “You’re a wizard’s son, have faith in your father and wait patiently for him.”  
“But sir, he told me he’d be back in three days. He’s been gone for over a week now!” Romeo protested, acting worried.  
“If I remember correctly he took the job on Mt. Hakobe.” Makarov stated.  
“That’s right, it’s not far from here, so why won’t someone go look for him?” Romeo shouted.  
“Listen kid, your old man’s a wizard and like every other wizard in this guild he can take care of himself! Now go home, have some milk and cookies and wait.” Romeo clenched his fist and threw a punch at the old man’s face.  
“Jerk! I hate you all!” Romeo shouted, running out the door.  
“Poor Romeo.” I muttered. Something then sounded like it broke around the job board.  
“What are you doing? You almost broke the board Natsu.” exclaimed Nab, one of the older members of Fairy Tail. Nab is extremely tall, therefore he towers over most of the other guild members. He’s well-endowed with his muscles, and fights pretty well when he has to. Nab’s hair is dark and styled in a bob-cut which frames most of his somewhat rectangular face. He has wide, horizontal strips of white paint on his cheeks, resembling war paint. His Guild Mark is placed on his left pectoral, and is white in colour. Natsu and Happy were leaving out the door, slamming it open, the loudness brought my attention back on them, Natsu’s going up to Mt. Hakobe to get Macao back, and everyone knew it even if he didn’t say so.  
“Why did Natsu get so upset?” Lucy asked, watching the two leave.  
“Probably because he and Romeo have a lot in common.” I explained, and Lucy redirected her sight to me. “I think he sees himself in Romeo. Just because we’re members of Fairy Tail, doesn’t mean we don’t have our own personal issues. We’ve all had our fair share of suffering and loss. Many years ago, Natsu’s father left and never came back, well, technically it wasn’t his real father, the one who raised him, he was actually a dragon.”  
“He was a what?” Lucy exclaimed. “Natsu was really raised by a dragon?” I nodded.  
“When he was a little boy, a dragon found him wandering the forest, he took him in and taught him all about language, culture and magic. One day, the dragon disappeared and never returned.”  
“So that dragon was Igneel?”  
“That’s right, and Natsu lives for the day when he’ll finally see Igneel again. It’s kinda cute, don’t you think?” it was only a few seconds later and Lucy was running out after the two best friends.

The rest of the day in the guild was fairly uneventful, many of the wizards took on some jobs, and others sat around and drank, or chatted. I decided not to take on a job for today, remembering I still had plenty of money from my last S-Class Quest. I was lucky enough to be chosen last year with several others to do the S-Class Trials, and ended up coming out on top, proving to be strong enough.  
“Kairi, are you taking on a new job today?” Gray asked in his general monotonous voice.  
“Nah, I have heaps of Jewels left. Are you grabbing one?” I replied facing Gray.  
“Yeah, I’ll be gone for a short while.” Gray answered.  
“Hmm okay.” I smiled. “Take care Gray.” Gray stood up shortly afterwards and I followed his actions. “Gray, good luck.” I smiled, opening my arms up for a quick hug. Gray obliged with a huff, but I still got a hug.  
“I’ll see you later Kairi.” Gray muttered as he pulled away.  
“Bye.” I replied, watching him walk out of the guild, just to disappear for a few days.  
“You know the two of you are just adorable.” I heard Mirajane exclaim from behind me. Her voice was unexpected and caused me to jump slightly, instantly blushing as I turned to face her.  
“Mira! Don’t say stuff like that.” I replied, looking away in embarrassment. I pushed some of my long chest-length black hair behind an ear. My hair is generally thin and straight, but I found it hard to manage, mostly keeping it up if I can, but it was not too much of a hazard yet, so it was down. I grabbed the hem of the huge sweater I was wearing and looked down in embarrassment. From this view I couldn’t see the pink shorts I was wearing, hidden by the huge sweater, but I could see my knee-high black socks and the white shoes that matched the sweater.  
“But it’s totally true!” Mirajane replied smiling at me, which was met by a frown from myself.  
“I think it’s time for me to go home now.” I replied, stepping away from Mirajane. “I’ll see you tomorrow okay?” I waved goodbye and quickly left the guild in a hurry out of embarrassment.

The sun was low in the sky, leaving the normal sky blue behind and a mixture of oranges, yellows and even some pinks were decorating it. I was walking through the streets that still had some people in it, when I heard some yelling.  
“Hey Romeo!” it was Natsu who had yelled out, and hanging on his shoulder was Macao; Romeo’s dad, next to them was Lucy and Happy. Macao looked pretty beat up but he was doing okay. Macao’s a slim, mildly muscular man of average height with short, slicked back dark blue hair. He has linear dark eyebrows, with dark eyes and a prominent nose with a flat front. He sports a large amount of stubble, which includes a thin moustache. Macao’s blue Guild Mark is located on his right bicep.  
“Dad!” shouted Romeo, and I watched as he sprinted for his father. The force knocked them both to the ground as they collided. I giggled slightly at the action. The two hugged tightly, and Natsu, Lucy and Happy began to walk away. “Natsu! Happy! Thanks for your help!” Romeo shouted.  
“No problem kiddo!” Natsu replied, waving his hand back.  
“Aye!” Happy added.  
“Lucy, thanks for helping them bring my daddy back to me!” Romeo continued. Lucy looked back and waved. My eyes trailed down to my left wrist, seeing my own Fairy Tail Guild Mark there, in a light purple colour, I smiled being proud to have it there for anyone to see. I watched as Macao and Romeo walked passed me to head to their own home.  
“Hey Kairi.” Macao greeted.  
“Hey, how’re you going?” I asked, looking down to the little six year old. Romeo was definitely my favourite kid; well he was the only kid I really knew.  
“We’re good.” they replied, each with a grin.  
“That’s great. I’m glad you’re back. This little one wouldn’t stop bothering me.” I ruffled Romeo’s hair slightly.  
“Thanks for looking after him.” Macao smiled. They parted ways and I walked a few feet before turning around watching as Romeo obediently followed after his dad. I smiled softly, and continued to head for Fairy Hills.

  
_Fairy Tail is always a family, even if we sometimes argue with one another._


	2. Eisenwald

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for everyone who took the time to read my first chapter!  
I've been wanting to post it for a while, but really only just got the courage recently.  
Hope you like this chapter, introducing the Eisenwald Arc.

Days later, I was back in the guild sitting at the bar with Gray next to me, and Makarov who was sitting on top of the bar counter, cross-legged. I watched as my guild mates, Levy McGarden and her team Shadow Gear looked at the job board. Teams are formed for missions, instead of going alone they go together, and work together. Shadow Gear has the members Levy, Jet and Droy in it, Levy works mostly as the leader. I wondered what it’s like to be in a team. I only had that thought very briefly, dropping the thought when Levy complained that the job she wanted was already taken.  
“Darn, did somebody already take that book-stealing gig? That one paid two hundred thousand.” Levy muttered. Levy is a rather young, petite teenage girl of a slender build who stood at a rather below-average height for her age. Levy actually comes to just a few inches under myself, and she’s seventeen. She has shoulder-length blue hair, which has eyebrow-length bangs, she normally tied it up with a colourful bandana around her head. Levy has a variety of outfits, but her most preferred type of attire seemed to be dresses, which reveal the white Guild Mark on her left scapula. Levy is a Solid Script Magic Wizard, which is a form of Letter Magic.

Jet, his magic is High Speed, which makes his name very fitting. Jet’s a slim man of average height with orange hair, which is kept jutted backwards at the sides of his head. He has a sharp face; a prominent, flat and defined nose pointing downwards, and distinctive teeth, his Guild Mark is in the same place as Levy’s. Droy is also slim, with black hair that’s kept in an unusual, strange hairstyle. It’s a tuft of hair on the crown of his head that juts upwards, and curves slightly. Droy has dark eyes and thin eyebrows. His rectangular shaped face, sported sharp features with prominent cheekbones. Droy is a Plant Magic user, and his Guild Mark is in the same place as well. Both Jet and Droy asked Levy out once, but were quickly rejected.  
“Sorry. I guess Natsu and Lucy got to it first.” Mirajane apologized, walking by. Looks like those two were in a team now as well.  
“I really could’ve used that money.” Levy sighed.  
“Don’t despair, it’s probably for the best Levy.” announced Makarov, as he woke up from his nap on the bar counter. Makarov was about two feet away from where I was. “It’s changed.” he added. Shadow Gear changed their attention from the board to Makarov.  
“What do you mean?” Levy asked.  
“I was just contacted by the client concerning that job.” he replied.  
“Oh? Did they cancel it?” Mirajane asked.  
“No, quite the opposite. In fact the reward has been increased. It’s now two million.”  
“Two million Jewel!” Levy exclaimed.  
“They’d pay that much for some stupid book?” Droy asked.  
“That’s almost like fighting monsters kind of pay.” Jet added. “Maybe we were lucky we missed it.”  
“Did they give any reason why?” Mira asked. Beside me, Gray was sitting silently, though the ice in his glass started moving, must be in reaction to Gray, he was an Ice-Make Wizard after all. What kind of book was worth that kind of money, it’s a thought we all wanted an answer too.  
“Sounds like this job just got interesting.” Gray muttered.  
“Oh Gray…” Mira chuckled, walking behind us. “Nice skivvies.” I looked to my right and he was once again in his boxers. Gray looked down and groaned. I laughed quietly, hiding my mouth behind my hand.  
“You’re never going to learn.” Gray placed his usual clothes back on and sighed.  
“I need to take another job, I’ll be gone again for a while.” Gray told me this when he didn’t sit back down.  
“Do you know how long?” I asked.  
“Nah, I’m going to say it sounds like it could take a while, so I’m not sure.”  
“Okay, hurry up and come back soon then.” I smiled, watching him leave again. 

Once again, even more days had passed already, Gray was still gone, he should be back soon, but I guess I really couldn’t tell yet either. Natsu, Lucy and Happy were still gone too, leaving the guild to feel very quiet without Natsu and Gray fighting.  
“Did you hear Erza is coming back today?” Cana asked, taking a drink from her beer mug.  
“Oh yeah! Gramps told me, I think.” I paused. “She’s been away for a while now?” I asked.  
“Yeah.” Cana nodded. “I have a feeling that she’s gonna be in a bad mood.” she sighed.  
“That’s what you always say.” I replied.  
“I’m usually right too.”  
“Erza’s only harsh because she gives tough love.” I smiled. “I’m excited to see her!”  
“Only you Kairi.”  
“Maybe it’s because Erza’s been a good friend of mine for a long time?” I shrugged.  
“It’s probably so, anyone with a brain should be scared of her.” Cana replied.  
“Because she’s the scariest member of Fairy Tail.” as I finished speaking, three people came through the front door. Natsu, followed by Happy, Lucy and then Gray last. They must’ve met up somewhere for them all to come back at the same time. They all looked pretty happy to have finished their jobs, even Natsu and Gray were talking, not arguing with one another. 

I smiled at Gray, and he returned my smile, and then I looked to a table nearby as a fellow mage, Wakaba Mine was hitting on Mirajane, even though he was in his thirties’ and married. Wakaba was of average height, similar to his best friend Macao. His brown hair is very distinguishable by the over-the-top pompadour-like style. Wakaba’s pupils were light in colour, which could only be seen when Wakaba truly opened his eyes, because he generally seemed to have them half-closed. His yellow Guild Mark was placed on his left pectoral. Mira used her Transformation Magic to imitate his wife, making him rethink his words.  
“I wish I could drink in peace for once.” Cana sighed, sipping from her mug.  
“It’s not like you don’t do it all day.” Macao replied, drinking from his own mug. Natsu quickly got some food to stuff his face and his own drink, and quickly ate it within seconds. Now I think he’s complaining that they needed to go on a different job already. Lucy was looking at the job board with an intense stare. I thought it might be nice to really talk to her, so I decided to walk up to her.  
“Finding a magic bracelet, breaking a spell on a cursed cane? Reading someone’s love horoscope? Hunting a volcano demon! Jeez, I had no idea wizarding jobs would vary so much.” she muttered to herself.  
“We get all kinds of jobs.” I explained. “There’s a wizard out there that can complete different ones, depending on their magic.”  
“I guess… but still they range from silly, easy and then hard.” Lucy replied.  
“Yeah, and these are the easy jobs. There are some that are much, much harder.”  
“Oh… wow. I couldn’t imagine doing any of them just yet.”  
“Hmm, probably not.” I smiled. “I’m Kairi, I believe I haven’t had a chance to introduce myself.”  
“Lucy.” she replied. “What kind of magic do you have?”  
“I’m an Elemental Water Wizard, you mentioned something about being a Celestial Wizard right?” Lucy nodded. Mira walked over to us.  
“Let me know if you find one you might take on. The Master’s away at conference, so I’m filling in for him.” she smiled.  
“Wow, what kind of conference?” Lucy asked.  
“One for Guild Masters, every once in a while, they all get together to talk about the state of things.” Mira explained. “It’s like the Magic Council, but not.” Mira turned around. “Excuse me, Reedus. Could I borrow a light pen?” Mira asked kindly.  
“Oui.” Reedus uses Picto Magic, which is an art styled magic. Reedus is a large round man, and he uses his round chest and tummy as his drawing place for magic, but other than that he does use an art pad. He has curly, light orange hair, with small pupils. Reedus handed Mirajane a special pen. A light pen is a magical item that allows the user to write in the air, and just as expected Mirajane started drawing in the airspace in front of her.  
“The Council of Era is a powerful organization in the Magical World, it’s only one step below the government. It has ten members, and it’s their job to uphold all the magical rules and regulation.” Mira drew a chart, which had Government at the top, a line below that was Era, and then below that were three boxes. “If a wizard breaks the law, they would be trialled by the Council. Then there’s the different Guild Master Leagues, which are different groups who work together. Then the individual masters, it’s their job to pass on the decrees of the Council…” I zoned out, I’ve heard this way too many times. Both Lucy and Mirajane kept talking. At some point Natsu must’ve joined the conversation because he was laughing loudly next to me, and I came back to reality real soon. They were still talking, now about Dark Guilds.  
“Would you just go and pick us a job already?” Natsu asked Lucy.  
“You have got to be kidding me, what makes you think I wanna do that?” Lucy glared.  
“Well, we are a team now, aren’t we?”  
“Yeah, and we picked the job last time. It’s your turn to pick, so get to it.” Happy added.  
“Just forget it cat, as far as I’m concerned our team has been disbanded. Besides you guys didn’t actually want me, you just needed me last time because I’m a blonde.” Lucy replied.  
“Don’t be ridiculous, it’s not the only reason we chose you. We picked you because you’re so nice.” Natsu grinned. I couldn’t help but smile.  
“Hey Lucy.” Gray called out to her, we all looked at him. He was sitting at the table Cana was at, the table I had been previously sitting at, and he was once again in his boxers. “I wouldn’t stick with those losers if I were you, you’ll get plenty of offers from other teams.”  
“Your clothes Gray.” Cana pointed out, making Gray shout out in confusion.  
“Jerk.” Natsu muttered. Gray paused his freak out and ran to Natsu, they stood forehead to forehead.  
“Did you just call me a jerk, dragon boy?” Gray glared.  
“What if I did, what are you gonna do about it?” Natsu snarled.  
“You mouth-breather!”  
“At least I’m not a coward!”  
“You’re a spineless wimp!” they kept arguing, not entirely making any sense of their insults. 

“Why don’t you join the team of love with me Lucy?” asked another male, Loke. The guild’s resident male womaniser. “Later tonight? Just the two of us?” he placed his arm around her shoulders.  
“Loke, anyone with a brain in this guild would never date you. I suggest you stop.” I looked up at him. His short length orange hair is somewhat shaggy, and his hazel eyes were hidden by some tinted sunglasses.  
“Oh come on Kairi, you’re dying for a night with me.” he placed his free arm around me too.  
“You better not let Gray hear you say that.” I replied, pulling myself free of him.  
“There’s no way someone as cold as him could warm you up, unlike me.” Loke smirked. I felt my face blush slightly and grow a little warmer.  
“Sorry Lucy, you’re on your own with him.” I muttered, turning away from them. Loke placed his attention back on Lucy, but then he was shrieking about her being a Celestial Wizard, the guild was pretty sure he dated one once, and now he refuses to get with another one, but I wouldn’t know why really, Loke and I had never been close. I placed my own attention on Gray and Natsu as they fought. Gray clocked Natsu in the jaw, making him stumble backwards into Lucy, effectively knocking them both down.  
“Would you two just knock it off already?” Lucy muttered with a scowl on her face.  
“Natsu started it. I’m just following through.” Gray explained.  
“Liar. You started it.” I replied.  
“I did not.” Gray protested.  
“You provoked me!” Natsu glared as he stood back up. “You dirty slime ball.”  
“Oh yeah? And what exactly did I say to provoke you? You fire clown.” Gray glared back. The two stepped towards each other simultaneously until they were connected by their foreheads again.  
“Pervy flasher!” Natsu shouted.  
“Pink haired pomp!” Gray insulted.  
“Lame insults guys…” Lucy interjected.  
“Trust me, they don’t get any smarter. They’ve been at it for years.” I told her. Everyone was either happily watching or continuing with their own separate activities. 

It was almost quiet again when the door slammed open.  
“I’ve got bad news!” shouted a male, I looked to the door, and it was Loke. Everyone else also paid some attention. “It’s Erza, she’s on her way here.” immediately everyone gasped. It made most of the guild completely unsettled.  
“Wow, just mention Erza and everyone freaks out.” Lucy commented.  
“Well she is the strongest female wizard that we’ve got in Fairy Tail, she’s more than a bit intimidating.” Mirajane explained in a happy voice. It was soon after that, that we could hear loud, clanky footsteps heading right towards the guild. I heard incessant whispering going around the whole guild.  
“It sounds like her footsteps.”  
“Even the air’s gone cold.”  
“From these reactions, you’d think she was some kind of demon…” Lucy muttered.  
“How do you know she isn’t?” I asked the blonde. Lucy looked at me with a fearful look. “She’s not.” I added. A shadowy figure came up to the doorway, the shining sun behind made it impossible to see how she looked, but she was carrying a huge… well it was either a horn or a tooth from something big. She placed the huge object on the ground with ease, and stepped forward so we could see her.  
“Wow, she’s pretty.” Lucy whispered.  
“I have returned, where is Master Makarov?” she asked with her highly authority-like voice. Erza’s scarlet red hair was still as long as I remember it, and her brown eyes were still as pretty too. Erza was wearing her custom-made armour on the top half of her body, and then a dark blue skirt with black boots. For some reason, Erza’s always liked wearing that armour, even if she’s not fighting.  
“Welcome back Erza, the Master’s at a conference right now.” Mira explained.  
“I see.” Erza replied.  
“So um… what’s that humongous thing you got there?”  
“It’s the horn of a monster that I defeated. The locals were so thankful that they decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir. Do you have a problem with it?” Erza asked.  
“No! Not at all!” I could see that some people were almost shitting themselves because Erza sometimes bosses people around, especially if they’ve been slacking.  
“She’s not anything like I imagined.” Lucy mumbled.  
“Now, listen up.” Erza started. “While I was on the road, I heard a few things, word is, Fairy Tail is causing nothing but trouble as of late, Master Makarov may not care, but I most certainly do.” Erza started, she turned. “Cana. You need to start controlling your drinking.” the brunette, who had been drinking from a barrel paused. “Vijeeter, please take the dancing outside. Wakaba, get rid of that filthy habit.” Erza ordered. Wakaba smoked his pipe inside, which wasn’t the best place to smoke it. “Nab, I suspected I’d find you dawdling in front of the board, just pick a job! Macao…” Erza stopped talking, taking a break to sigh.  
“Just say something.” he panicked.  
“I don’t even know where to begin with you.” she continued, shaking her head. “You cause so much trouble, I’ve almost given up.”  
“She’s really tearing into everyone.” Lucy whispered.  
“Are Natsu and Gray here?” she asked.  
“Over there.” I pointed at the two rivals, who were hugging, smiling right at Erza.  
“Oh hey there Erza.” Gray started. “We’re just hanging out, like friends tend to do.”  
“Aye.” Natsu replied.  
“That’s great.” Erza nodded. “I’m quite pleased to see the two of you getting along so well. However it’s only natural for even the best of friends to lock horns every now and again, isn’t that right Kairi?” Erza looked over at me.  
“Uh… right? Right.” I replied, if Erza knew those two were still constantly arguing, they’d surely receive a beating. Erza tends to speak with her fists.  
“Natsu, Gray and Kairi, I need you to do me a favour.” Erza started. Gray and Natsu let go of each other and truly started listening. “While traveling I overheard something that has me worried, normally I would consult with the Master before acting, but he’s not here and this is a matter of utmost urgency. The three of you are some of the strongest wizards here, I could really use your help.” everyone else started whispering, asking amongst themselves if Erza really did ask us for help. I must say, she’s never asked for help before, but if she’s worried it must be serious. “We’ll meet at the train station tomorrow morning.” she explained. I already knew that the boys were staring each other down, those boys have never worked together.  
“Did that just happen?”  
“That’s a first…”  
“Erza, Kairi, Natsu and Gray? Working together?”  
“I never saw that one coming. This could be... the most powerful team Fairy Tail’s ever seen!” Mira exclaimed.  
“I wouldn’t say that Mira, there is plenty more-” I started to say but was cut off.  
“You really can’t take any kind of compliment can you?” Gray asked. I looked towards my raven haired boyfriend, and my cheeks flushed.  
“I just think that…”  
“Don’t be stupid, you’re a powerful Water Wizard.” he replied quietly just so I could hear, but there was no way Natsu didn’t hear. His Dragon Slayer senses were much better than an average person. Usually if we were in the guild, or even in public Gray and I didn’t get affectionate with one another, actually weren’t very affectionate at the best of times. I get embarrassed super easily, and Gray has never been like that. 

Early the next day, four of us were at Magnolia Station, myself, Natsu, Gray and Lucy; Erza wasn’t here yet, but I guessed she wouldn’t have been too far away. Mira suggested to Lucy that she tag along, allowing her to get some extra experience with missions, and to help me control Gray and Natsu when Erza wasn’t looking. She was sitting with a small Celestial Spirit that she’s contracted to, with Happy next to her.  
“Argh! I hate this! Teaming up with you is the worst idea ever!” Natsu was glaring at Gray.  
“Yeah, tell me about it. Erza made a huge mistake asking a loser like you to come along.” Gray replied with just as much hate.  
“I think it was a mistake asking both of you.” I interjected to myself, not that they were listening.  
“Why don’t you just take care of it yourself? I don’t wanna go anyway!” Natsu continued.  
“Sounds like a plan to me, then I’ll get to watch her beat you senseless.”  
“Sorry I’m late, been waiting long?” Erza’s voice popped up. Natsu and Gray instantly stopped.  
“No, we haven’t been here long.” I answered, I looked to the scarlet haired wizard. Behind her… was her huge luggage, making it seem like we’d be gone for several months.  
“All those belong to you!” Lucy shrieked.  
“It’s time to go, good buddy!” Gray exclaimed.  
“Aye.” Natsu laughed.  
“Good, I really love to see the two of you getting along.” Erza smiled. “Isn’t it nice Kairi?”  
“Stop asking me…” I mumbled, lowering my head as Natsu and Gray continued to be loving friends. It felt wrong as I watched them. I heard Erza double-check Lucy’s name. Erza got distracted by Lucy, leaving the boys to glare angrily at one another. I watched Erza quickly look at them, and in perfect timing and sync, they smiled. Only to glare once she looked away.  
“Hey. Erza, I’ll come with you, but only under one condition.” Natsu announced.  
“Shut up.” Gray hissed.  
“Oh? Well then, let’s hear it.”  
“I want a rematch when we get back to Fairy Tail.”  
“Why? You know she’ll win.” I questioned.  
“I’m a lot stronger than I was last time.” Natsu smirked. “This time will be way different, cause I’m gonna beat you.” he boasted. He looked determined, but also somewhat too cocky. Erza is gonna beat his ass.  
“Yes, I can tell you’ve improved, as for whether or not you can beat me… I suppose we’ll have to see. I accept your challenge.” she replied.  
“Oh yeah! I’m fired up!” Natsu shouted. 

“Fired up huh?” I giggled as Natsu sat lopsided in the train. For some reason Dragon Slayers get motion sickness, though it can happen to anyone, it’s always evidently shown in Dragon Slayers all over the world.  
“I swear, you’re totally pathetic Natsu.” Gray sighed looking out the window. Natsu, Happy and Gray were sitting on one side, and Erza, Lucy and I were on the other. “One minute you’re picking a fight, next you’re like this.”  
“Must be tough riding from place to place like this.” Lucy consoled.  
“Don’t worry he’ll be fine. Come here and sit with me.” Erza suggested to Natsu.  
“Aye…” Natsu groaned. I helped Natsu transfer to our seat, and then Lucy and I sat on the other side. Erza placed her arm around Natsu.  
“Now just relax…” she smiled.  
“Aye…” she hit him in the gut, making him flop down to her knees, and he was soon asleep.  
“That should make the trip a little easier on him.” Erza stated.  
“You’re really mean Erza.” I told her. Erza just gave a coy smile.  
“Erza. I think it’s about time you started filling us in.” Gray suggested. “I mean, what kind of mission are we going on here?”  
“Of course, I have reason to believe that the Dark Guild Eisenwald is planning something big, I’m not sure what exactly, but it has to do with a magic item called Lullaby.” Erza explained.  
“Lullaby?” both Happy and Gray repeated that word, and Gray and Lucy both looked to each other.  
“You three know what that is?” I asked curiously.  
“Was it that thing from before?” Lucy questioned.  
“I see… so you’ve run into the Eisenwald Guild before.”  
“Well, I’m not positive that they were a part of Eisenwald, but they did mention Lullaby.” Gray explained. Happy, Gray and Lucy all started explaining about when they met these people that mentioned Lullaby.  
“It sounds like they were members who were dropped out of the guild and had gone into hiding. Perhaps they wanted no part in whatever it is that’s coming.” Erza suggested.  
“So this thing is even so bad it scares Dark Wizards?” Gray concluded.  
“I’m only hypothesizing, but whoever you saw dragging off Happy’s kidnappers that day must’ve been from Eisenwald. It’s obvious that they didn’t want their plans getting out.”  
“What do you think they’re gonna try?” Lucy asked.  
“Let me start from the beginning, just the other day I was heading home after completing a job. I stopped by a pub in Onibas that I knew was a gathering spot for local wizards. I was at the bar when I overhead a small group of men talking about Lullaby, one of them said he’d have it in three days.”  
“Lullaby, that’s like a song that you sing kids to sleep.” Lucy commented.  
“Yes, and the fact that it had been sealed away means that it must be very powerful magic.”  
“You sure the guys at the pub were with Eisenwald?” Gray asked.  
“Yes. I can’t believe I was such a fool that day. I didn’t recognise his name, Erigor. The Ace of Eisenwald. He only accepts assassination requests, which is why he’s earned the name Erigor the Reaper.”  
“It’s that Erigor? Why would he want anything to do with this Lullaby scheme?” I asked softly.  
“I truly don’t know, but we’re gonna find out.”  
“I should really be heading back home now.” Lucy muttered shocked.  
“How could I have been so careless?” Erza chided. “If only I had recognised Erigor’s name that day, I could’ve pulverised them. I could’ve forced them to reveal their scheme to me.”  
“So… if I got this right, Eisenwald’s planning to do something with this Lullaby, and you want to stop them? Because after what you overheard you’re sure that it’s gonna be something bad.” Gray questioned.  
“That’s correct, and I’m not foolish enough to believe that I can take on an entire magical guild all by myself. That’s why I asked for your help. We’re storming the Eisenwald Guild.” Erza explained.  
“Sounds like fun to me.” Gray smirked.  
“I shouldn’t have come along.” Lucy complained.  
“I’m really not so sure-”  
“Quit it already Kairi, you’re an S-Class Wizard, you can do it.” Gray butted in. I looked up at his face, and then faced back in front of me, with a slight blush.  
“I forget that you two have never teamed up, even though it’s been what… three years?” Erza commented. I nodded, she was correct with both parts of that statement. Gray and I have never worked on a job together, and we’ve been together for three years.  
“What’s been three years?” Lucy asked.  
“Gray and Kairi’s relationship!” Happy replied loudly.  
“Oh! Really, that’s adorable!” Lucy smiled, looking at me.  
“Thanks…” I replied softly. 

An employee on the train came by with a trolley of both food and drinks. Lucy tried haggling her price down by showing a ‘sweet’ face to the older man.  
“Can’t you give me a little discount? Pretty please?” she winked. She only got to keep a few dollars more than what Gray paid for his own sandwich. Happy scored some fish, and Lucy even bought her Celestial Spirit Plue, a carrot. Erza bought herself a slice of cake, which was not surprising at all. The group settled back down on the seats and started eating, at this point of the train ride, I wasn’t hungry, but maybe if they had come around again, I might’ve grabbed something to eat. “If you don’t mind, what kind of magic do you practice Erza?” Lucy questioned.  
“That’s a good question.” she replied.  
“Erza’s magic is really pretty.” Happy gushed. “She makes her enemies bleed… a lot.”  
“Oh Happy, I don’t think that’s exactly pretty.” I replied frowning at the cat.  
“Personally I think Gray’s magic is much more beautiful than mine.” Erza commented.  
“Oh, like this?” Gray held his arms out, and placed one fist into his flat palm. There was suddenly chilly air surrounding Gray as he worked on it. He lifted his fist away and revealed a small ice version of the Fairy Tail Guild Mark. “I use Ice Magic.” Gray explained to Lucy.  
“Now I understand why you and Natsu don’t get along, he’s fire and you’re ice. Talk about not mixing very well.”  
“I never thought about that.” Erza added.  
“Nah, I just hate his guts.” Gray replied.  
“Well, either way, it complements the two of you so well.” Lucy looked towards me. “Water and Ice are in perfect harmony.”  
“Oh… uh, of course.” I replied, placing a hand to the back of my head sheepishly as I felt my cheeks burn slightly. 

We arrived at Onibas shortly afterwards, as soon as the train stopped we all got off. We waited for Erza to get her luggage, and then started down the station pathway.  
“You think the Eisenwald guys are still gonna be in this town?” Gray asked as we walked along the station.  
“I have no idea.” Erza replied. “That’s what we’re here to find out.”  
“I’m still thinking that maybe I should go home…” Lucy mumbled.  
“Wait.” Happy spoke up. We all paused to wait for him to say something else. “Where’s Natsu?”  
“What?” we all looked back; the train had already left, heading on its way back to Magnolia.  
“Uh oh, there he goes.” Happy waved.  
“We were so busy talking, I forgot about him.” Erza muttered. “I’m such a fool, Natsu hates all forms of transportation. This is all my fault, I need one of you to come and hit me for my penance.” she concluded.  
“No way. We don’t need to die today.” I mumbled and then sighed. “We’re gonna have to wait.”  
“Actually, let’s stop the train.” Erza announced, walking away.  
“Huh, Erza you can’t just do that!” I shrieked running after her. Erza found a lever, with a sign saying emergency stop above it, she pulled it down.  
“What do you think you’re doing lady? You can’t just pull the emergency lever without permission.” scolded a train conductor.  
“It’s for our comrade, please understand.” Erza replied.  
“Are you kidding me?”  
“Now I would like you to take our luggage to the hotel.” she added.  
“Erza! That’s not his job.” I explained. From behind I heard Lucy cry out, I looked back and Gray was shirtless. “Gray! You can’t strip in public!”  
“Let’s get a Magic Vehicle.” Erza suggested. “We’ll get out to Natsu, and bring him back.”  
“Yeah, let’s go.” I replied, agreeing. The train station had a lot of rented cars, so we hired one ourselves. Lucy and I hopped into the back seats, Erza decided to drive, and Gray barely had time to grab on, as she started connecting the SE Plug to her magical energy. Erza drove fast, and in no time we were caught up to the train. 

“Natsu!” Lucy shouted. Natsu jumped out a window and was heading straight for us in the air. I’m pretty sure Gray and Natsu collided, because Gray had climbed on top and they landed on the ground behind us. Erza came to a quick stop, pulling the car over. I opened my door and ran out to the boys, they were lying on the ground opposite each other; their foreheads were looking a little bruised.  
“Are you alright?” Erza questioned as she ran over.  
“Aye…” I grabbed Gray’s hand and helped him up, and Erza did the same to Natsu.  
“That hurt you idiot!” Gray shouted.  
“Shut up you icy freak! How come you guys left me on the train?”  
“I’m just thankful you weren’t badly injured. I apologise Natsu.” Erza replied, her arm wrapped around his head, and she pulled him to her armoured chest.  
“It’s okay.” he whimpered from the impact with the armour. “Well… I’m shaken up bad. I got attacked by a weirdo on the train.” Natsu admitted.  
“Are you serious?” Lucy asked.  
“I think it’s the dude that dragged away the guys that were gonna eat Happy.” Natsu added. “Said he was with Eisenwald.”  
“You fool.” Erza slapped Natsu. “That is exactly who we’re chasing after on this mission. Why did you let him get away?” Erza shouted.  
“What the? This is the first I heard about it?”  
“I explained everything on the train. You should listen when people talk to you!”  
“She already forgot that she knocked him out, didn’t she?” Lucy questioned.  
“Yeah, she does that a lot.” I replied.  
“This woman is unbelievable.”  
“Yep.” Gray added.  
“So, he was on the same train that we were on.” Erza concluded, she walked back over to the Magic Vehicle, and strapped herself in. “Let’s find him.” the rest of us piled into the car.  
“So what was he like?” Gray asked as the car started.  
“He didn’t look like somebody from a Dark Guild, but he did have this strange flute, it looked like a skull, except it had three eyes.” Natsu explained.  
“A three eyed skull?” Lucy questioned.  
“That’s creepy.” Gray commented.  
“Is there something wrong Lucy?” Happy asked, after noticing how stiff she looked.  
“It’s just… I’ve heard about that flute before.” she replied. “Lullaby… the cursed song. It’s Death Magic.”  
“What?” Natsu replied.  
“A cursed song? Like an incantation?” Gray asked.  
“I read about it in books.” Lucy explained. “There are some dangerous books and spells out there… forbidden to be used by wizards.”  
“That’s right. There are cursed Black Magic spells that kill the person they’re used on.” Erza announced.  
“Well, if I’m right. Lullaby is even worse.” Lucy admitted.  
“Lullaby IS worse.” I replied. “It was created for destruction.”  
“Then that’s it. Let’s go!” Erza shouted. The car accelerated, and not once did it slow down, Erza was a mad driver.  
“Slow down Erza!” Gray shouted, as the car jumped over some rocky ramps, and we were being pushed around inside the car. The speed that Erza was going, was going to end up using too much of her power.  
“I have no choice but to press onward! We’re running out of time. If Erigor gets his hands on this Death Magic… trust me lives will be lost.”


	3. Eisenwald's Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eisenwald's Plans are revealed to Kairi and her friends in this chapter.  
They're after the Guild Masters, but first they have to jump through all kinds of hoops to keep on their mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who has read what I've posted so far!  
I got my 1st Kudos with my last chapter.
> 
> Feel free to leave any feedback!

The car was parked by a Cliffside that over-looked Kunubi Station, it turned out that they were hijacked here by Erigor and his men. All of us but Natsu were looking over the cliff, down at the small train station.  
“I could understand cars and boats, but why would they want to hijack a train?” Lucy asked.  
“It doesn’t really seem like it would be a very good choice for getaway, since it can only follow the tracks it’s on.” Happy commented.  
“Yes, that’s true, but it’s a fast mode of transportation.” Erza added.  
“I guess it’s up to us to figure out where those Eisenwald guys are going in such a big hurry, and why.” Gray sighed. Lucy looked back at Gray, and her eyes widened considerably.  
“You’re naked Gray!” she shrieked.  
“Am I?” he looked down, to only see his boxers. I sighed, looking back to below the cliff, already there were some military men keeping watch around the small station.  
“Military men have been called to action, so it should only be a matter of time before someone catches them.” Lucy spoke.  
“I hope that’s the case Lucy.” Erza replied.  
“It’s probably going to be us, these guys are no match for a Dark Guild.” I added, as we all piled into the car again. Erza started the car again, and the view changed shortly after.

We came through to a small town called Oshibana. Erza was driving down through the main, busy street, making people get out of her way to avoid being hit.  
“Stop Erza!” Gray shouted. “You’re going way too fast, you’re gonna overload the SE Plug!”  
“There’s no telling how many innocent people could die if Lullaby’s song is played. I can’t slow down, we have to stop Eisenwald before it’s too late!” Erza shouted back.  
“But at this rate you’re gonna use up all your magic before we even start fighting.”  
“Then I’ll just have to rely on hand-to-hand combat, besides I’m not you, Natsu or Kairi. I don’t rely on my magic too much.” Gray didn’t reply. I looked to the sick Natsu lying on the floor of the car. He looked seriously ill. I could hear Happy telling Lucy that he had had something important to tell her, but now he didn’t remember, so I don’t know how important it was meant to be.  
“What’s that up ahead?” Erza shouted. I looked out the window, we were reaching Oshibana Station, but it seemed that there was black smoke emerging from windows.  
“Looks like an accident, but it could’ve been Erigor.” I replied. Erza drove us up as close as she could and we ran the rest of the way.  
“Excuse me, what’s going on?” Erza asked a conductor.  
“Why would I tell you lady?” Erza socked him in the face.  
“What’s going on?” she asked another one. She head-butted that man too. She went through a few more men after that too.  
“Looks like her questioning method is counter-productive.” Lucy concluded. I nodded.  
“Erza’s got her own way of getting things done.” Gray replied, and I looked over at him.  
“Your clothes, Gray.” I sighed.  
“The Eisenwald Guild is inside, let’s go!” Erza shouted. We ran inside the huge building. “The small army unit stormed in earlier, but they’ve yet to return. I’m guessing that they’ve been caught in battle with the Eisenwald forces.” Erza explained. The hallway that we were running through had a mass of unconscious people and extra armour at the end.  
“They’ve been completely wiped out.” Happy commented.  
“They were up against an entire guild of wizards.” Erza explained. “A small contingent like this would never stand a chance against such a powerful group.” the five of us walked through an empty doorway and came close to the man named Erigor. He was a tall man, leanly built but yet, he was mildly muscular. His hair was silver, which was held pointing upwards in spiky strands, but it hung down covering the left of his face in a cowlick fashion. The hair length reached his shoulders. His eyes were black, and he had an elongated face with sharp features, his ears were somewhat pointed. He seemed to lack eyebrows covering his eyes, but they were circled by dark lines and each eye has a simple tattoo under them. The tattoos consisted of pointed lines going down vertically, crossed with two more horizontal lines. Erigor was shirtless and his upper body was tattooed as well, it’s a much larger intricate tattoo, the tattoos are dark blue, and took on spiralling forms, adorning his shoulders, biceps, shoulders and back.  
“Welcome, step into our parlour Fairy Tail flies.” he exclaimed. All the other guild members stared at us and chuckled.  
“Whoa, there’s so many of them.” Lucy freaked, taking a step back.  
“You fiend. I take it you’re Erigor.” Erza spoke to him.  
“Hey you…” one of the men spoke. “It’s your fault I got into trouble with Erigor.” he glared, seemed it was aimed at Natsu, this must be the guy who attacked him on the train.  
“We’re not threatened by any of you!” Erza announced. “Tell me, what you’re planning on doing with Lullaby.”  
“You haven’t heard yet?” Erigor asked. He jumped up, and was suddenly floating high in the air. “Wind Magic…” I commented.  
“What do all train stations have?”  
“You plan to broadcast the Lullaby song?” Erza asked. Erigor cackled.  
“Thousands of nosy onlookers have gathered to the station to get a glimpse of the action. Who knows, if I raise the volume enough I might be able to extinguish the entire city with my melody of death.”  
“What reason do you have to commit such a heinous crime against the innocent people of this town?” Erza shouted angrily.  
“This is a cleansing of all the fools out there who failed to appreciate the rights they hold so dear, who remain wilfully ignorant of the plight of those who had their rights stripped away. They’ve committed the sin of turning a blind eye to the world’s injustice. Therefore the reason is; I’ve come to punish them!”  
“But killing them isn’t going to help you get your rights back, it’s only gonna make it worse.” Lucy commented. “That’s the whole reason you were kicked out of the Wizard League in the first place.”  
“At this point, we’ve given up trying to regain our rights. We want power, then we will be able to wash away the sins of the past and take control of what happens in the future.”  
“You guys are completely insane.” Lucy shouted.  
“We’re rolling in a new age of darkness.” said one of the Eisenwald members. “Of course by the time it gets here, you flies will be long gone.” Shadow Magic was travelling super-fast on the ground, straight towards us. Just in front of us, the magic drew up from the ground, and aimed itself for Lucy. I was about to step in front of her, but Natsu shot up, and broke the spell with his own fire.  
“Eisenwald dude, I knew I recognised that voice.” Natsu smirked.  
“You’re back to normal?” Lucy asked happily. Natsu nodded slightly. Lucy had to carry Natsu in because his motion sickness had been affecting him still.  
“Wow, looks like we got ourselves a party here huh?” Natsu questioned.  
“No… Natsu these are the guys we have to fight!” Lucy replied. Natsu slammed his fist into his palm.  
“Like I said, it’s a party.” Erigor chuckled.  
“This is the strongest team Fairy Tail has to offer, you better be ready!” Lucy shouted.  
“I’ll leave them to you.” Erigor started moving through the air. “Show them the terror of the Dark Guild Eisenwald.” then he disappeared.  
“Natsu, Gray and Kairi, go I need you to stop him.” Erza ordered. “If you all work together, not even Erigor the Reaper can defeat you, I’m leaving him in your hands.” instantly Gray and Natsu were butting heads. “What did I say?” Erza shouted.  
“Aye!” they complied. The three of us left the huge room we were in, and ran down a hallway.

“I can’t believe she’s making us work together.” Gray insulted Natsu as we ran. “What was she thinking?”  
“Obviously she wasn’t thinking. Everybody knows that fire and ice don’t mix.” Natsu replied.  
“Yeah, why does she always have to be so freaking bossy?”  
“She should ask us to do stuff instead of ordering us around!” the two boys stopped so abruptly, I was unprepared to stop like them, but only for a few seconds. A few metres in front of them, I paused and turned around to look at them arguing.  
“Are you done?” I asked, feeling annoyed. “Everyone knows that if Erza just asked you to do anything, you’d refuse.” I added. The two of them looked to me instead, and then it seemed they were looking passed me. I turned to look back slightly. A split-end hallway.  
“Which way do we go?” Natsu asked.  
“I guess we’ll have to split up.” Gray replied. Gray and I were going left, Natsu was going right. Just before we truly parted Gray spoke up. “Natsu, we’re up against an evil freak who’s getting ready to unleash a deadly spell. If you find him, give him a thrashing.” Gray grinned.  
“You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve got a bone to pick with that jerk for messing with Fairy Tail. I’m gonna burn him to a crisp.” they both chuckled, but then looked away from one another.  
“Let’s go.” Gray suggested, taking my wrist. As we were walking away from Natsu he muttered something. “Don’t die on me.” I heard it, and I know Natsu did too with his super Dragon Slayer hearing.  
“You big softie!” I whispered, smiling up at him. Gray and I ran through this part of the hallway.  
“So Erigor’s gonna play the Lullaby through the speaker system.” Gray commented. “Let’s just make it, so it won’t work.” he smirked.  
“Okay, to the broadcast studio?” I questioned. Gray nodded.

We made it to the studio door after some running through different hallways. I was about to try opening the door, when Gray just kicked it in with force.  
“Gray, I could’ve tried opening it.” I sighed.  
“It was much easier kicking it in.”  
“It was probably unlocked to be honest.” the two of us looked into the room, no one was there.  
“Maybe we were wrong about him broadcasting it over the stations P.A.?” Gray questioned looking around the equipment.  
“How else can he- Gray!” I was going to ask a question, when I looked up and saw one of the Eisenwald Guild members on the ceiling. He shot some magic directly at Gray, but he managed to dodge.  
“That was a pretty good guess pal.” the Dark Wizard commented. “But our plan isn’t as obvious as you might think.” he lowered himself from the ceiling with magic that revolved manipulating black finger bands, it’s called Urumi Magic, it produces black cables, they could be sharp too, and these ones looked like they were.  
“So tell me what the plan is and you won’t get hurt.” Gray replied. Instead of telling us, though I didn’t think he would tell us, he attacked Gray, and also aimed for me too. We both dodged, but his magic weapons kept coming. I was able to transform my body into full water; knowing this fact, I didn’t dodge too much, whatever hit me, usually went straight through if I concentrated enough. Gray placed his hands together, and ice radiated from him. “_**Ice-Make: Shield!**_” a spiked ice shield emerged in front of Gray, deflecting the attack from the Dark Wizard. “**_Ice-Make: Knuckle!_**” ice particles flew through the air until they reached the other man, turning into several large fists, knocking the wizard back. He landed on the ground and Gray walked up to him. “This is your last chance to tell me what you’re planning. You’re not gonna broadcast the Lullaby song over the P.A. system?” Gray questioned. The other man chuckled.  
“Erigor’s magic sealing barrier should be activated by now.”  
“Erigor’s what?” Gray asked.  
“A magic sealing barrier? We’re stuck in here.” I explained.  
“That’s right. He’s created a wind barrier, to keep you insects from escaping.”  
“If you think we’re not getting out of here, you’re wrong!” Gray shouted, grabbing the wizard by his collar and pushing him against a wall. “Why don’t I get straight to the point here buddy? Tell me, what the plan is, or else!”  
“We knew you’d pass with caused problems so we lured you here and trapped you. The only reason we took over the station was to block traffic to the final stop.” he started. “We didn’t want any trains getting into Clover Station.”  
“Yeah, why?”  
“Cause that’s where it’s going down. Clover’s just beyond a giant canyon, and this train track is the only way in and out of town. Unless you’re able to fly like Erigor.”  
“So the Lullaby’s in Clover?”  
“You know what else is there right now? Think hard and you’ll get it.”  
“Gramps!” I exclaimed. That’s where the conference for the Guild Masters was at. Suddenly more of those black cables hit Gray, sending him into the wall on the other side. “Gray!” I shouted.

_This was their plan all along! The Guild Masters!_

“It’s too late to stop us now!” shouted the other man.  
“You Eisenwald thugs must be pretty brave, taking on such a powerful group of wizards.”  
“Those ignorant old fogies won’t know what hit them once Lullaby’s song starts playing. There’s no way Erigor’s plan will fail.” cables wrapped around Gray tightly. “You and your little fairy friends are stuck in the station so there’s nothing you can do about it. Soon, we’ll have our revenge on everyone who tried to keep us down, when we’re done, they’ll be completely wiped out.”  
“Kairi, I need some water!” I nodded, placing my arm outright and my palm flat, creating water solely out of magical energy, it circled Gray, and he froze it. He froze the cables that were attached to him. He broke out of them, smashing them. “That’s not gonna happen.” the wizard’s body started freezing too. “Now get this straight, when you mess with the Guild Masters then you mess with all of us, they may be old fogies, but they’re the closest thing we have to parents.” Gray placed his palm on the man’s face, making the rest of his body freeze. “Let’s get out of here.” Gray finished. As we exited the room, chilled air was radiating from him.

“Erza!” Gray exclaimed as she came into our view. We had ran back into the huge room we were in before when we first saw the Eisenwald Guild, except Gray and I were on the second floor, looking down.  
“What are you doing here? I thought you were with Natsu.” she replied.  
“We decided to split up.” I answered.  
“We’ve got a problem, and Eisenwald’s real target is Clover, the next town up.” Gray explained.  
“What?”  
“Erigor’s headed to the conference as we speak. He’s planning to use the Lullaby to kill the Guild Masters!” I shouted.  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Erza glared at a nearby injured wizard. She looked back up to us. “There’s a problem, the station is surrounded by a wind barrier.” Erza added.  
“We know. We saw it earlier if you try and break through, it’ll kill you.” I explained.  
“I already tried that.” Erza sighed.  
“Whoa, is your arm okay?” Gray asked, we both noticed how she was clutching it.  
“It’s not important, what is… is getting out of here. We must stop Erigor before he reaches the Guild Masters Conference. Wait a minute… I remember them talking about someone named Kagey back at the pub. We have to find that man, he was the one who broke Lullaby’s seal.” Erza explained.  
“A dispeller, huh? A seal breaking wizard. He can take down the wind barrier.” Gray concluded.  
“That’s what I’m hoping, so let’s start searching.”

We decided to stick together, and we were searching down a hallway when the building shook, it was almost violently, but it was coming from the opposite direction.  
“Do you think that was him?” Gray asked.  
“Yes.” Erza replied. We changed our course, heading to where the building started shaking from.

Up ahead, I saw the wizard named Kageyama on the ground, and Natsu was towering over him. It looked like they’d been fighting for at least a bit. They both had bruises littering their flesh. Kageyama was a young man, possibly younger than Erigor, but only a little. Kagey has black hair which he’s got tied up in a short, spiky ponytail. His eyes were of similar colour. He’s wearing a white shirt with a high collar, it seemed to have an intricate pattern on its back, and his pants were aquamarine in colour.  
“Natsu! Do not harm him!” Erza shouted. “We need him alive!”  
“Way to go, you fire freak!” Gray insulted. Natsu turned to stare at us, while we ran at him. He looked utterly confused.  
“Ah! Erza!” he shouted scared once they locked eyes and she re-equipped a sword in her arms. “I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry!” Erza ran past Natsu and aimed it at Kageyama.  
“You will dispel the wind barrier, and you will do so without complaint.” Erza glared. I could see the fear in his eyes, and the tremble in his lips.  
“Just do it man!” Natsu exclaimed. “She’s the real monster.”  
“Shut up Natsu.” Gray groaned.  
“Understood?” Erza glared.  
“Fine… I’ll dispel it.” Kageyama choked out, but before anything could happen, an arm shot out straight through his body with magical terms. “Why…?” he choked out. He fell to the ground, and behind him was a short, round man. He was also trembling. “Why… Kur-acka…”  
“Kagey!” Erza shouted, as she and Gray crowded him.  
“No. He was our only way out of here.” Gray exclaimed. “I think we’re losing him.”  
“How could you do that to one of your friends? He’s a member of your guild! He trusted you and you tried to kill him!” Natsu shouted. I could tell he was super angry, his fire was completely surrounding him. The short man disappeared back through the wall, and Natsu ran towards the wall, punching through it. “Is that how you Dark Guild members treat each other!” without fail, he beat up the guy who hurt Kageyama.  
“We can’t let him die! He’s our only way out!” Erza started shaking him fiercely.  
“Erza! Let him go!” I grabbed her wrists to pull her to a stop. She reluctantly did. “There’s no way he can use magic in his condition!”

Lucy soon found us nursing an unconscious Kageyama, and Erza filled both her and Natsu in on the plans. We came out of the front door, but about five metres away, there was the wind cyclone barrier.  
“I’m pretty sure that we could catch up to him on the Magic Vehicle.” Gray commented.  
“Except that the car isn’t going to get us out of here.” I added.  
“How are we going to do that?” Lucy asked. Natsu charged at the barrier with a fired up fist. He also managed to get shocked and flung back.  
“Don’t do that again.” I told him. “And don’t try that Lucy.” I looked at her.  
“No way!” she cried out, immediately shocked. Natsu stood back up and continued hitting, again and again.  
“Got. To. Save. Makarov!” he shouted. He ended up in the same spot he was in two seconds ago.  
“We all want to save Gramps, Natsu. We can’t do that from in here though.” I told him.  
“Cut it out you idiot, obviously brute force isn’t going to do you any good.” Gray insulted. Natsu charged at it again.  
“Stop trying to be the hero, you’re going to get torn to shreds!” Lucy shouted. “I said, stop it!” he was flung back but Lucy caught him this time.  
“Wait! We can use your spirits!” he exclaimed. The two argued, because Lucy said it couldn’t be done without two Celestial Wizards, but Natsu didn’t get it. While they were arguing Happy screamed.  
“I just remembered Lucy!”  
“Remembered what?”  
“What I was trying to tell you on the way here!” he screamed. Oh yeah, I did remember he was struggling to remember something.  
“On the way here?” Lucy questioned confused. “Oh yeah. You mean when you kept calling me weird?”  
“Look!” Happy pulled something out of the little green pack on his back. It was a key.  
“How’d you get your paws on Virgo’s Key? Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s wrong to steal things?” Lucy asked.  
“I didn’t steal it. Virgo asked me to give it to you.”  
“Come on, we’re wasting too much time.” Gray sighed.  
“We can’t do anything else Gray.”  
“Who’s Virgo?” Natsu muttered confused, but then it was like a light turned on in his brain. “Oh, wasn’t she that big gorilla looking maid?”  
“Her contract with Everlue was broken as soon as he was arrested. She said she wanted to sign a contract with you Lucy.” Happy explained.  
“Great… I get a big ugly spirit.” Lucy sighed. “Anyway, thanks for letting me know, but I’ll have to deal with her later, we’re too busy.” Lucy commented.  
“But-”  
“Shut up! Why can’t you meow like every other cat?” Lucy shouted.  
“She can be pretty scary.”  
“Poor Happy.” I added.  
“I’m sorry, I just thought since Virgo can drill holes, that maybe she could dig through the ground, get us to the other side.” Happy muttered, upset.  
“She can do what?” I asked.  
“Seriously?”  
“You’re right, she can!” Lucy exclaimed. Happy gave her the key. “_**I call upon thee, in the world of the Celestial Spirits and now I beckon you to my side at once! Pass through the gate. Open! Gate of the Maiden. Virgo!**_” a small petite pink haired girl, wearing a maid’s outfit came through, completely out of thin air.  
“You summoned Mistress?” Virgo asked. “What can I do for you?” Lucy looked rigid.  
“Who are you?”  
“What?” I whispered confused, shaking my head.  
“What’s up burger?” Natsu asked. “Man, you look great. You’ve lost some weight.”  
“My name’s Virgo.” she corrected. “I apologise for any trouble I might have caused you.” she smiled.  
“She didn’t just lose weight Natsu!” Lucy shouted.  
“What do you mean?” Gray asked.  
“She’s like a totally different person!”  
“I’m a very loyal spirit who will do anything to please her wizard. So I try to take on whatever form I think my wizard will find most appealing.” Virgo replied.  
“I don’t know… I kind of liked it when you were all big and tough looking.” Natsu commented.  
“Did you really? Well then.” she changed into a monstrous lady. Huge in every part of her body. Her voice even went deeper. I had to admit, it scared both Gray and myself.  
“Don’t listen to him! I’m your wizard, and I like the other form better!” Lucy screamed.  
“As you wish mistress.” the large brute Virgo, turned back into the small petite woman she just was.  
“I’m afraid we don’t have much time, can we work out the contract details later?” Lucy asked.  
“Of course, whatever you’d like Mistress.” Virgo replied.  
“Do you really have to call me Mistress?” Lucy sighed.  
“Would you prefer I call you Queen?”  
“No.”  
“What about Princess?”  
“Oh yeah, that’s more like it.” Lucy smirked.  
“Princess? Yeah right.” Gray sighed.  
“Hurry it up girls.” Natsu added. Virgo placed an arm on her chest and bowed, suddenly she drilled through the ground.  
“Whoa.” I commented, looking down the hole.  
“Wow, look at her go!” Gray laughed. “Alright you guys, time to bust out of this joint.” behind us, Natsu was grunting, we looked to see him lifting Kageyama over his shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?”  
“I know he’s one of our enemies but I’d feel guilty if we just left him here to die.” Natsu explained.  
“Alright then. Let’s go.” Erza ordered. We all crawled through the long tunnel that Virgo drilled for us.

We were at least a hundred metres away from the wind barrier when we emerged on the other side. It was much windier on this side than it was in the middle of it, hair and clothes were flapping everywhere.  
“Looks like we made it out safely!”  
“Let’s head towards Clover.” Erza shouted so we could hear her.  
“Woah, this wind is crazy!” Lucy screamed, climbing out of the tunnel.  
“Princess!” I heard Virgo shout. “I’ll keep your panties from showing.” wait, what? I was confused until I saw Virgo holding Lucy’s skirt down, but completely forgot her own dress was lifting up.  
“Don’t even think about looking Gray.”  
“What are you talking about? I wasn’t.” he muttered back, hastily looking away.  
“It’s no use, you’ll never be able to catch up to Erigor.” Kageyama croaked out. “You can’t stop us, we’ve won.” none of us answered him, because we didn’t believe they’d won.  
“Where’s Natsu?” Erza asked.  
“Happy’s not here either.” Gray added. We all looked at each other in that moment.  
“That idiot…”  
“We’re going now!” Erza ordered. “Get in the car!” Gray and I helped walk Kageyama to the car, and Erza drove once more, driving on the train tracks on the way to Clover.

“So, tell me…” Kageyama started to speak after some time. “Why are you taking me with you?”  
“Because you obviously need a doctor.” Lucy replied. “And since everyone left town, you’ll need to see one in Clover. Try and show some gratitude.”  
“I don’t understand. Why are you helping me? We’re enemies. Oh, wait I get it… you’re taking me hostage so you can make a deal with Erigor.” he muttered. “Well you can forget it, he could care less about me or any of his men.”  
“Jeez… lighten up.” Lucy sighed.  
“We’re not taking you hostage, maybe you didn’t realise it, but not everything is about outdoing your enemies by blackmailing them, at least not for Fairy Tail.” I spoke up.  
“But if you wanna die, we can make that happen.” Gray threatened. Kageyama looked up at Gray who was sitting next to him.  
“Chill Gray.” Lucy frowned.  
“There’s a whole lot more to this world than just life and death you know. You should try to look for the positive. You and your Eisenwald pals.” Gray explained. The car was driving along the train tracks when it unexpectedly went airborne.  
“What’s going on?” I shouted.  
“It’s okay! Everything’s fine now!” Erza replied as the car landed safely.  
“Now? Why wasn’t it fine two seconds ago! Erza, let me drive!”  
“You’ve never driven a car before!” she exclaimed.  
“Now’s a great time to learn.”


	4. Erza’s Arrest for Lullaby?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't forget about uploading at all! Totally didn't...  
But I've been getting a few kudos and even my first comment since the last time I uploaded! So thanks! I really wanna get into a schedule of uploading but I'm terrible at it, and I was getting my partner to overlook it before uploading but it's annoying to ask and I guess it still makes me embarrassed to have him read it still.  
But I'll try uploading maybe once a week, or fortnight if I can.

Halfway to Clover, Erza started slowing down.  
“Is everything okay out there?” I asked.  
“Natsu and Erigor are here, it’s not like we can pass them.” she replied, halting the car completely. Lucy, Gray and I all crawled out of the back seats. Taking in the sight, the only way to Clover was by this train, and it was a pretty dangerous area, seeing as the train track was surrounded by cavernous hollow depths that no one could return from if you fell down.  
“Natsu!” Lucy shouted. Up ahead of us, Natsu and Erigor were there. Erigor was on the ground passed out, and Natsu was standing tall.  
“Hey! You guys just missed seeing me beat Erigor!” he grinned.  
“I’m proud of you.” Erza smiled softly, she was tumbling slightly, and Lucy pulled her arm around her shoulder to keep Erza steady.   
“Are you okay Erza?”   
“Yes, don’t worry about me.” Erza replied.   
“I can’t believe you had such a hard time with this guy.” Gray smirked.   
“I never said that!” Natsu argued. “I took care of him didn’t I?”  
“I was kind of worried for him for a while there.” Happy admitted.  
“Whatever, you look pretty stupid wearing a scarf when you’re half naked.” Gray insulted. Natsu seemed to have lost his waistcoat along the way here.  
“Like you have room to talk.” Natsu glared. “Hey Lucy, give me your clothes!”  
“In your dreams!” she shrieked. Erza and I slightly laughed.   
“Anyway, well done Natsu. Thanks to you, all the Guild Masters will be safe now.” Erza smiled, impressed. “While we’re here, I think we should stop by the conference to tell them what happened and ask how we should properly dispose of the Lullaby flute.” she suggested.   
“Might as well since we’re so close to Clover.” Happy agreed. We all agreed to the idea, but suddenly the car was flying overhead of us. Shadows were sticking out of it, and one was carrying the flute.  
“Kagey!” Erza shouted.   
“What do you think you’re doing?” Gray yelled.   
“Lullaby’s mine now!” Kageyama yelled back. “Shouldn’t have let your guard down flies!” we heard his laughter all the way down the track.  
“That jerk!” Natsu cried out.  
“This is how he pays us back for saving him?” Lucy asked.  
“After him!” the five of us started running down the rest of the track.   
“Do you know how long this is going to take?” I asked, running in the front with Natsu beside me.  
“Too long, but we have to keep going!” 

It was late now, getting super dark, but we were still running. We were in Clover now, and soon we’d be at the Guild Masters’ Conference. Erza was getting slower by the second from having used way too much power from the SE Plug. We were coming to an opening in a forest that was close to the conference building.   
“There he is!” Gray shouted. Kageyama was below us, while we were up on a cliff just above.   
“Gramps?” Natsu questioned.  
“Master!” Erza exclaimed. Gramps was with Kageyama, just the two of them, but they didn’t hear us.  
“Shh!” hissed someone close to us. We all looked, Natsu, Gray and Lucy kind of freaked out. “We’re just about to get to the good part.” it was a cross-dressing round bald man. He had the Guild Mark of Blue Pegasus. It was the Guild Master, Bob. “Well aren’t you boys yummy? So adorable.” he gushed. He danced slightly closer to them, and they both cringed away.   
“Who is that guy?” Lucy asked.  
“Master Bob.” Erza greeted, answering Lucy’s question.  
“Erza, honey. You have really filled out.” he admired. “You’ve grown up too Miss Dreyar.” Bob looked to me, and I looked away. This man had always been too forward with people. I faced the area where Gramps and Kageyama were.  
“No!” I shouted. Kageyama was about to start playing the flute.   
“Can you guys keep it down over there? We’re just about to get to the good part.” it was another man, the old man who founded Quattro Cerberus Guild.   
“He’s with Quattro Cerberus!” Lucy exclaimed.  
“That’s their Master, Goldmine.” Erza explained. Both Goldmine and Bob were good friends of Gramps, so good they were once in Fairy Tail, and in a team together, before those two started their own Magic Guilds. I looked back to Kageyama and Gramps, noticing that Kageyama ended up hesitating in playing the flute, and now Gramps was just talking to him.   
“Well, I can’t wait all night young man.” Gramps spoke, looking up at him. “Nothing’s going to change. You cannot change the fact that those who are weak will forever remain weak, now, maybe it’s just me but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I mean, we humans are weak creatures by nature. Our insecurities are the reason that guilds even exist, and they’re why we have friends. When we’re surrounded with allies it’s easier to stay positive about the future. Think of it this way, if we’re clumsy, then we may stumble and bump into things, but as long as we have faith in our future, we continue marching forward. Our inner strength emerges on its own, but we have to choose that path and pledge to live our lives to the fullest. Don’t let that silly flute get in the way.” we all waited, just in case. Kageyama dropped the flute on the ground and he dropped to his knees, bowing down. Everyone who was up on the cliff with me, jumped down easily and my friends and I raced to Gramps.   
“Master!” Erza called.  
“You stopped it!” Natsu grinned.  
“Good job Gramps.” Gray smiled.  
“Gramps!” I exclaimed. We ran the last stretch.  
“What? How did you kids get to Clover?” Gramps shouted.   
“Master Makarov! I was almost moved to tears!” Erza said as she pulled him into her hard armour for a hug.   
“Well looks like we got here just in time.” we were all just about to quickly celebrate when the flute started flowing dark purple smoke from it.   
“We’re screwed.” I sighed. A huge dark magic circle emerged in the sky, sending purple electric bolts to the ground.   
“I can no longer hold back!” shouted a loud, booming voice. A huge monster came through the magic circle, as it stepped onto the ground, it made the earth shake. It was a three-eyed monster, made from the same type of timber the flute was made of. “I shall feast upon your pitiful souls!”   
“It’s so big!” Lucy cried.  
“Way to state the obvious!” Happy replied.   
“What is that thing?” Kagey asked. “Erigor never said anything about a monster!”  
“We’re in a pickle!” Bob gushed.   
“Must be a demon from the Book of Zeref.” Goldmine explained.  
“Why did the flute turn into a monster?” Lucy asked, as people from inside the conference building ran outside.   
“That’s what Lullaby’s true form looks like in the flesh. Its forbidden Black Magic, Living Magic, and Zeref’s speciality.” Goldmine answered.   
“Living Magic?” Erza asked.  
“Who’s Zeref? Is he some ancient wizard?” Gray asked.   
“The worst Dark Wizard ever. He’s evil, and was once very powerful when he was alive.” I replied. The monster moved closer to us, leaning down to look at us.  
“Now then… which of these delectable souls should I dine on first?” it asked.   
“Delectable, huh? Do you think souls are actually tasty?” Natsu asked.  
“As if we know!”   
“Natsu and Gray! Get everyone to a safe place!” Erza ordered.   
“Quit barking orders!” Natsu shouted back.   
“Yeah, you’re not the boss of us!” Gray added.  
“Just do it!” she glared.  
“Aye!” they agreed. The huge monster shot out a blinding light in the opposite direction of us, I think it was attacking the Royal Army of Fiore. The monster let out a huge howl, it was so loud. It hurt everyone’s ears.  
“It’s preparing to attack.”  
“Ready?” Erza asked, re-equipping two swords.  
“Yeah!” Natsu, Gray and I replied. Erza ran up in front. And we followed straight after. Erza changed her armour into her Heaven’s Wheel Knight Armour. Plated armor covered her chest, with a large metal flower over it, and she wore a large billowing skirt that had metal plating in the upper area. Her stomach and neck were uncovered, and she had large metal wings that appear to be made of individual blades, as well as a wing-like headpiece. She hit the monster with her swords.   
“**Water Slicer!**” I shouted. By swiping an arm, I could send scythe-like blades of water at my target, or enemies, it happened to hit the huge monster just as Gray was hitting it with his Ice Magic. After us, it was Natsu.  
“**Fire Dragon’s… Iron Fist!**” he shouted. Both his fists were covered in flaming fire and he punched the monster in the face.   
“**Water Cyclone Beam!**” I placed my hands side by side, and a jet of high pressured water shot from my hand, as it left. The water span round like a cyclone would. It hit the monsters chest.   
“You are making me angry!” Lullaby shouted. The whole time the monster kept aiming for us, but we were able to make it out of the way each time. The Lullaby monster leaned back, and started sucking air into itself. It was sucking the life out of the nature around us. But now… it was suddenly ridged. “Why can’t I play the Melody of Death!” it exclaimed.   
“Is it because we attacked it too much?” I asked, panting slightly. It looked at us and its eyes brightened. Fire erupted near us, and it wasn’t Natsu who caused it.  
“**Ice-Make: Shield!**” Gray shouted. This one was ten times larger than the one from Oshibana Station. The fire started lessening, but only because Natsu was eating it. Erza re-equipped into her Black Wing Armour.   
“**Water Cage!**” I shouted. A bubble of water covered the Lullaby Demon, making it unable to leave the cage it was in, but we could enter if need be. Natsu knocked the monster down, with a huge flamed ball, and in fact it turned back into the little flute. Natsu and Erza came back down to the ground, where there was dust and dirt flying everywhere, and we couldn’t see the others through the other side due to how thick it was. I stood next to Gray, who was next to Erza, and Natsu was on the far side.   
“Well done.” Gramps praised.  
“Are all Fairy Tail Wizards as powerful as those four?” I heard Kageyama ask.   
“There’s no doubt about it, this is the strongest team.” Lucy grinned.   
“We’re an awesome guild aren’t we?” Gramps laughed.   
“Great work out there guys.” Lucy ran over to us.  
“Thanks, but it wasn’t a big deal.” Natsu replied.  
“Yeah, piece of cake.” Gray smiled, placing an arm around my shoulders. We all smiled and laughed.   
“We owe a round of thanks to these guys.” Goldmine admitted.  
“Even so… I must say…” they were all looking behind us, and slowly we turned too. “They went overboard!” the Conference Guild Hall was missing! Natsu just laughed.  
“We really made a mess of the place huh?”   
“Please forgive us Master Makarov!” Erza shrieked. All of the Guild Masters were yelling at us except for Goldmine and Bob. We decided it was time to go, they definitely didn’t need us around anymore. Once we were a fair way away, I looked back to see some of them waving. I waved back with a smile, and then Gray placed his arm around me again. I faced the way we were going and looked up at him with a smile. 

We were back home in Magnolia now, in fact we’d been home for a few days now. Our mission to stop Lullaby had been in all the newspapers, and while in town, I’d had plenty of people coming up to congratulate me and the others. Everyone’d been talking about it. It was pretty fun working in a team for once, but it wouldn’t last much longer for sure. Natsu and Erza were planning on keeping that fighting promise today, that whole thing with Natsu only teaming up, if Erza would fight him… yeah it’s happening today. But just now, Gray suggested we should go see Lucy, she’d been holed up in her apartment for a while now without leaving. Gray eagerly knocked on Lucy’s apartment door, but no answer came.   
“Gray, she’s obviously left her apartment, she’s not home. So tell me why we’re here?” I asked.  
“You haven’t seen her apartment have you?” I shook my head. “It’s sweet as! We gotta get inside.” Gray grinned. He slowly twisted her doorknob and it opened, and quietly we went in. I felt bad about coming in uninvited, but I could easily blame Gray. It turned out Lucy was home, but she was too in the zone in writing to even hear us. “Man, seventy thousand Jewel a month is dirt cheap for a place like this.” Gray spoke as he sat down in one of her chairs. “You totally scored Lucy.” and he was in his boxers already.  
“It’s an intruder alert!” she squealed. Lucy kicked him in the chest. “No stripping in my house buddy!”   
“Hey! Give me a minute to explain would ya?” Gray shouted, trying to back away from her leg. “I was naked when I got here.” he sighed.  
“You were not. You had clothes on.” I frowned.   
“You too Kairi?” Lucy sighed, disappointed.  
“He forced me, I swear!” I exclaimed, putting my hands up in defence.   
“Get out!” Lucy demanded.  
“So you forgot about today huh? I figured you wouldn’t remember, so we came by to remind you.” Gray explained.   
“About what?”   
“Let’s try and jog your memory. Remember when Natsu challenged Erza at the train station?” Gray asked. “They’re about to fight their match.” Lucy’s eyes widened in a teensy bit of horror.   
“Should we get going now?” I asked. Lucy nodded and quickly rushed around her apartment to get going. 

We got to the street where Natsu and Erza were about to fight. A crowd was surrounding them, but half of the crowd was from Fairy Tail.   
“No way! They’re really gonna fight?” Lucy asked as she saw them.  
“Hey guys.” Mira greeted with a smile.   
“Well if those two value their manhood they better go through with it.” Elfman commented.  
“Ah… this infamous female manhood. I bet Erza has heaps.” I smiled.   
“Well she is manly.” Macao admitted.   
“Aren’t you worried this fight could tear our strongest team apart?” Lucy asked.  
“What are you talking about? Our strongest team?” Gray questioned.   
“You, Kairi, Natsu and Erza, you dummy!” Lucy replied. “You’re the strongest wizards in the guild.” “We are?” Gray asked.  
“We’re not. Lucy, you still haven’t met everyone.”   
“Yeah, what idiot fed you that lie?” Gray laughed. I looked to Mira and she was staring at Gray, and basically burst into tears. “Oh… you’re not an idiot Mira.”  
“Smooth move Gray.”  
“I’ll hand it to Natsu and Gray, they’re tough little dudes, but neither of them are even close to being the strongest.” Elfman added. “There are guys who are in Fairy Tail who are even stronger than both of them combined. Like this guy.” he grinned, pointing to himself.   
“Calling Erza the strongest woman in the guild is pretty safe though.” Levy added.   
“Is Kairi the second strongest female?” Lucy asked.  
“No way!” I exclaimed, dismissing that question.   
“If Kairi had more faith and confidence in herself, she could definitely be stronger than Erza.” I heard Levy whisper.  
“For the guys, it’s a tough call, but I’d put my money on Laxus or Mystogan.” Jet added.  
“I agree. Laxus or Mystogan.” I piped.  
“You have to choose Laxus.” Levy laughed.  
“I don’t have to, but I’m not silly.” I smiled.   
“All I meant was that the group worked well together and they have the best team chemistry.” Mira cried.   
“And that’s coming from the same person who sent me with them to keep Natsu and Gray from killing each other when Erza wasn’t looking?” Lucy questioned.   
“Don’t worry about Mira.” I muttered to Lucy. “She’s very emotional.”  
“I gotta say. I’m psyched to see how this fight turns out.” Elfman admitted.   
“Oh yeah? I’m sure she’ll end up mopping the floor with him.” Gray smirked. Erza changed her armour into her Flame Empress Armour. Well now she had an upper hand, it lessened any flame attacks. The first round started with both attacking one another, and it was pretty impressive.   
“Woah…” Lucy whispered.   
“See, it’s a good fight.” Elfman smirked.

A gong sounded through the street and a Magic Council messenger stepped through the crowd.  
“This fight is over!” she cried out. “May I have your attention please? I have come here on behalf of the Magic Council. As a result of the Eisenwald incident…” my heart skipped a beat. “…a member of your guild has been charged with eleven accounts of criminal property damage. Erza Scarlet, you are under arrest!”   
“Huh, you’re putting her under a what?” Natsu shouted.  
“No way! It wasn’t just Erza, that’s not fair!” I exclaimed, pushing through the crowd. “If you arrest her, you have to arrest all of the team!”   
“Kairi, leave it. I’ll go alone.” Erza replied.  
“But Erza-”  
“Drop it.” I closed my mouth and lowered my head slightly. Erza was taken by the messenger and pulled into a cart. Soon it rolled away, with Erza in it. The Fairy Tail Guild members all quietly came back into the hall nearby. We were all quiet, none of us spoke. It was entirely unusual, well actually that was a lie. Natsu wouldn’t shut up, so Gramps shrunk him, and placed a glass over him. Even then, he still wouldn’t shut up. He tried arguing his way out, but it didn’t work.   
“This is unfair you guys, let me out of here!” he shouted.  
“Natsu, try to calm down.” Mira replied, looking at him in his confinement.  
“Let me out!”  
“You’ll go on a rampage!”  
“I’ll be good, I swear!” he promised. “Just turn me back to the way I was before!”  
“The second we turn you back, you’ll run out to save Erza.” Mira replied, leaning down to the counter he was on.  
“Even if we wanted to help her, it’s not like we can face off with the council.” Gray commented.  
“But don’t those jerks on the council realise that Erza did what he had to do to save the lives of the Guild Masters and stop the bad guys and their evil death flute.” Natsu protested.  
“If the Magic Council says you’re guilty, then you’re guilty. End of story. They don’t care what we have to say.”  
“I just don’t get it.” Elfman sighed. “We’ve destroyed plenty of stuff in the past and never made a big deal out of it.”  
“I know, it doesn’t make any sense.”  
“It’s like… there’s some other reason for this.” I muttered.  
“This is wrong! We should be there to testify!” Lucy exclaimed, standing up.   
“Erza didn’t want us there Lucy.” I said softly.   
“We’re not going to court.” Gramps announced.   
“Why not Master?” she asked, running up to him. “We all know she’s innocent. We can’t just sit here and let them lock her away!”  
“Even if we left this very second, there’s no way we’d make it there in time.” Gramps explained. “But…?” Natsu started screaming that he was losing air in the glass, but he was lying.   
“Are you sure you want out?” Gramps asked him. Natsu started scratching his cheek. “What’s the matter? Seems you’ve lost the fire in your belly?” Gramps was silent until he sent a gust of magic to the glass, knocking it to the ground. In the end, it was Macao transformed as little Natsu.   
“Macao?” Levy asked.   
“Yeah, sorry guys, but I owed Natsu a favour.” he admitted.   
“Do you know where he went?” Lucy asked.   
“Uh…”   
“He went after Erza, didn’t he?” Gray frowned when Macao didn’t answer.   
“Yeah, afraid so.” Macao nodded.   
“That idiot will try and fight the whole council!” Elfman shouted.   
“Would everyone just calm down?” Gramps ordered. “We’ve no choice but to wait and see what happens.” 

Natsu and Erza came back after only one night. They were already there by the time I got to the guild that morning. Natsu was shouting about freedom when I walked in, and everyone just wanted him to shut up. Apparently the arrest was just for show, they wanted the public to think they blamed someone, but they didn’t actually have to keep her in jail, but Natsu showing up, earned them a night in the cell.   
“Erza wasn’t a sacrificial lamb… but an escape goat.” Gray concluded.   
“What?” I frowned in confusion.   
“You must be one heck of an Ice Wizard because even your jokes leave me cold.” Elfman shuddered, but then turned his attention to Natsu. “Hey Natsu! You gonna finish going man-to-man with Erza?”   
“Oh yeah! I forgot about that.” he grinned. “So what do you say? Wanna pick up where we left off?”   
“I’m not in the mood right now.” Erza replied.   
“I’m not letting you off the hook like that.” Natsu smirked, lighting his fist on fire. Erza stood up, and punched him right in the gut. He wheezed and then fell to the ground.   
“Are you satisfied?” she asked, even though he was definitely out cold. Gray and Elfman both started gasping for air as they laughed.   
“Hey… are you… feeling sleepy?” Lucy asked lethargically.  
“No?” I asked confused.   
“Not again.” Gray muttered. Everyone just slowly fell down as they fell asleep.  
“Mystogan?” I asked myself. Mystogan had never been seen by almost everyone in this guild, he uses Sleep Magic on everyone inside, and anyone in Magnolia who came within ten feet. I’d never seen his full face, but I’d seen his eyes, hair and parts of what could be a tattoo surrounding his right eye, I’d never seen him for more than a few minutes when he came by the guild for a new mission. Mystogan wore a dark blue cloak over a form fitting shirt, but large pants that were held up by suspenders. He had a green scarf that covered his mouth, and a dark blue hat that covered his forehead. His arm and legs have always been covered in bandages every time I saw him. It turned out, that only a few people could handle the strength of his spell. Myself, Gramps, and Laxus. Mystogan was one of the few S-Class Wizards that Fairy Tail has.   
“Mystogan.” Gramps greeted.  
“I shall return.” he replied, after pulling down a job request from the board.  
“No, wait. Lift your sleeping spell before you leave.” Gramps asked. He turned around, and I saw his sharp looking brown eyes, Mystogan nodded in my direction in recognition at me. He walked towards the door, counting down from five. As soon as he left, everyone was awake.   
“Oh, man… was Mystogan here?”   
“What a jerk.”  
“Does he have to put us to sleep every time he comes here?” Levy asked.   
“Who’s Mystogan?” Lucy asked sleepily.   
“He’s the contender for Fairy Tail’s strongest.” Elfman explained  
“Really?”   
“Yeah, and for some reason he doesn’t want anyone to see him.” Gray added. “When he comes here to take a job, he casts a sleeping spell.”  
“That’s kind of creepy?” Lucy admitted.  
“Master Makarov and Kairi are the only one who’ve seen him.” Gray added.  
“You have?”  
“Just his figure. I don’t really know what he looks like, he covers his body up.” I explained. “No one’s seen him without his disguise though.”  
“That’s not true.” spoke a loud voice from upstairs. I perked up slightly, and looked. “I’ve seen him before.”   
“Laxus?” I called out.   
“How rare.”   
“You’re never here.”   
“And that’s the other contender.” Gray sighed. Laxus was a tall, muscular young man. His eyes were grey like mine, and his blond hair was spiked up. Laxus’ face was scarred, like a lightning bolt shaped scar over the right side of his face.   
“Mystogan’s just a little shy. You should all respect his privacy.” Laxus smirked, leaning over the balcony of the second floor.  
“Alright Laxus, you and me right now.” Natsu shouted, immediately getting up off the ground where Erza left him.  
“Getting your butt kicked once today, wasn’t enough?” Gray asked.  
“Yeah pal. If you can’t even win against the red-head, why bother with me?” Laxus taunted.   
“What are you trying to say?” Erza glared.   
“I’m saying that I’m the Guild’s Strongest Wizard.”  
“Then come down here and prove it.” Natsu egged.   
“You come to me, little man.”   
“With pleasure!” Natsu ran over some tables to try and jump to the top floor, but Gramps smacked him down with an extended large arm.   
“You’re not allowed on the second floor Natsu, at least not yet.”   
“Think you made him grumpy.” Laxus taunted.   
“Shut up!” Natsu shouted.   
“That’s enough out of you Laxus.”   
“The most powerful one in the guild, isn’t a chick or some hooded weirdo. You wanna know what he looks like? You’re looking right at him!”   
“You’re not the only S-Class Wizard Laxus!” I shouted.   
“Yet, I was allowed up here first?”   
“You’re older than me by 7 years, of course you got up there first.”   
“Age has nothing to do with it, little sis, I’m stronger than you.” he smirked. I clenched my fists tightly, but I refused to say anything more.  
“That guy is your brother?” Lucy asked. I nodded. “You don’t look alike.”   
“I look very similar to our dad, I have his hair.”  
“I see. So your mother was blonde?”   
“Yeah, but I don’t really remember her. She died when I was young.”   
“I’m sorry.”   
“It’s okay Lucy, you don’t need to apologise.” she smiled, and I did too.  
“So, let me ask you something else, what was the Master talking about earlier? Why can’t we go up to the second floor?”   
“I can. You can’t. The second floor is for S-Class Wizards only. The jobs that are listed on the board up there, make the regular ones look like little kids just pretending to be wizards. They’re S-Class Quests.” I explained.  
“S-Class?”  
“They’re dangerous, you could very well die, but with the risk comes a higher reward. Gramps hand picks the wizards he thinks are capable of handling these jobs, there are only a few people in this guild with that rank. That’s Laxus, Mystogan, Erza, Mira, another man that you haven’t met named Gildarts, and me.” I explained.  
“Wow. Thanks for clearing that up Kairi. It’s getting pretty late, so… I’m gonna head home. See ya.” Lucy smiled and said a quick good night. 


	5. S-Class Quests

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing the Galuna Island Arc! I think this was my favourite arc for the longest time since it gave us backstory to Gray who was already my fave boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for continuing to keep up and read this story, and thanks to those who just found it and at least tried it! I'm so happy that at least some people are giving it a shot!

I stayed the night in the guild, though more like I fell asleep at one of the tables, and not in the few beds that this place has. I was woken up to Mira panicking super loud.  
“Master! I don’t know what’s happened, but one of the S-Class Quests is missing!” she ran down the stairs and straight to Gramps who was drinking tea, when she said that, Gramps couldn’t help but spit it out immediately.  
“Say what?” Wakaba asked shocked. “One of the jobs from the second floor is missing?”  
“The jobs up there are S-Class… anyone know who took off with it?” Macao questioned.  
“It’s either someone really strong, or really stupid.” Laki sighed. Laki was a young girl, though a few years older than myself. She had straight pale lavender hair, its length reached her shoulders. Her fringe framed her forehead with an extra chunk of hair in the middle nicely.  
“I know…” Laxus grinned, leaning over the railing from the second floor. “A little blue cat flew up here and ripped it off the board.”  
“It was Happy? So Natsu and Lucy took it.” I replied. Everyone started talking about how the two would get in trouble when they come back… if they come back, that is…  
“They’ve got some nerve taking on an S-Class Quest.”  
“I don’t know if I’d call it nerve, but it’s definitely dumb.”  
“That’s a serious breach of the rules. Hey Gramps, a stunt like that will get you kicked out of the guild, am I right?” Laxus smirked. “Not that it matters, it’s not like those three losers are gonna make it back.”  
“Laxus!” Mira scolded, walking up the stairs to him. “If you knew, why didn’t you stop them?”  
“Oh lighten up, all I saw was a blue cat flying off with a piece of paper in its mouth trying to act all sneaky, I had no idea it was Happy.”  
“Laxus! Happy is the only blue cat you know!” I exclaimed.  
“Besides Natsu’s not cleared for S-Class, I never dreamed he’d break the rules.” Laxus smirked.  
“This isn’t good…” Gramps sighed. “Well which job was it?”  
“The one for lifting the curse on Galuna Island.” Mira replied.  
“I really wanted that job.” I sighed.  
“What?” Gramps exclaimed.  
“Galuna Island? Are they insane?”  
“They’re even dumber than we thought!” shouted two members in sync.  
“Laxus! Go and fetch them at once!” Gramps ordered.  
“Yeah right. I got better things to do Gramps, and besides everybody in Fairy Tail is supposed to be able to take care of themselves.” he smirked. “Right?”  
“I don’t care how you feel about Natsu! The fact is, you’re the only one strong enough to bring him back by force.” Gray stood up, as Gramps scolded Laxus.  
“Sorry Master, but I’m afraid I’ve got to disagree with you.” Gray suggested he’d go and bring the three back to Fairy Tail when he caught up with them. I watched him leave.  
“Kairi. Come here.” Makarov asked. I stood up and then walked over to be in front of him. “Just follow them, and take this Communication Lacrima Crystal to keep in contact with me.” Makarov handed me a portable round crystal that’s used to keep in touch. “If Natsu refuses, I demand to speak with him then and there.”  
“You got it.” I placed the Lacrima in my sweater pocket and headed out. I had to catch a train to Hargeon, so I was hoping they were still there.

I was at the top of the long staircase that led down to the port, I saw Natsu, Happy and Lucy talking to plenty of sailors, but after a while, the sailors would stop talking and continue working. I guess no one wanted to take them to the island of Galuna. I pulled out the Lacrima and started it up.  
“Hey Gramps.” I smiled as his face showed on the surface. “Lucy and Natsu are still in Hargeon. I haven’t seen Gray.” I paused. “Oh, actually never mind. He just found them.” I grinned. “They’re about to fight… Gray! Natsu just knocked him out cold!”  
“What?”  
“They’re taking him along with them!” I shrieked. “I’ll contact you later!” Natsu, Happy and Lucy and an unconscious Gray got on the boat with a sailor. I ran down the stairs as the boat started floating away. “Oh no!” I saw a nearby sailor. “Excuse me, can you let me sail with you, and follow that boat?” I asked, pointing at them.  
“That one?” he asked. I nodded hurriedly. “I guess, but you better pay for it.”  
“I promise I will!”

The whole time the man continued to try and talk to me, but I ignored him and tried contacting the guild again.  
“Kairi? Is that you?” it was Mira’s voice.  
“Mira! I’m so glad I got through.”  
“Where are you?”  
“On the way to Galuna Island.” on the Lacrima, Mira blinked rapidly.  
“I’m sorry, you’re what?”  
“Natsu, Happy and Lucy got on a boat with Gray as their hostage, the only way to stop them is to get on the island and then bring them back. I’m following them right now.”  
“Oh dear… please be careful.” Mira sighed.  
“I will be. Don’t worry. I should go now Mira, tell Gramps I said hello, Laxus too, if he’s interested.” “Of course sweetie. See you soon!” the Lacrima turned off, and I looked to the island we were getting closer too. A mountain on top, it looked like it was glowing. I was staring and it felt like the boat was rising ever so slightly. I looked around, this crappy sail boat was riding on top of a tsunami!

I woke up next on a beach, I wasn’t too sure what happened to my sailor or even their sailor, as the only people around me were from Fairy Tail. I was surrounded by the others sleeping still, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy. Happy was stuck in sand, and wriggling. I wasn’t sure if he was sleeping, but I wasn’t going to pull him out. I sighed as I realised my clothes were drenched, and even slightly ripped, which was fine except for one thing. My huge sweater was missing something, leaving me in a lilac tank top with a bow stitched onto the chest line.  
“What! Where is it?” I exclaimed, looking around. “I lost the Lacrima!” I didn’t have time to panic because Lucy was stirring in her sleep. I hid behind a tree. She woke up Gray and Natsu, and helped Happy up too.  
“Looks like we made it you guys!” Natsu grinned.  
“We’re lucky that wave washed us ashore.” Lucy said.  
“I don’t know if I would call it lucky.” Gray groaned.  
“I can’t help but wonder about the guy who brought us here. Right after he told us about the curse, he vanished.” Lucy wondered.  
“Forget about that stuff. Let’s go exploring.” I rolled my eyes at Natsu, he really was dense sometimes. “We’ve been here for like thirty seconds and you’ve already forgotten the mission?” Lucy asked. “Apparently there’s only one village on the entire island.” she explained. Lucy and Natsu were pre-occupied by talking about the mission, so I stopped hiding and sat on a rock out in the open, waiting for them to stop talking. It didn’t look like Gray was paying attention either though.  
“Not so fast.” Gray interrupted the two.  
“Give it up Gray, you can’t take us back to the guild now that our boat has been destroyed.” Natsu sighed.  
“You’re right. I’m coming with you. There’s no way I’m going to let the two of you clowns make S-Class before I do, and if you were kicked out of the guild, it would be pretty boring. Gramps will be upset but if we pull this off he won’t stay mad at us for long.” Gray smirked. “Let’s go.”  
“Yeah!” they all turned around, facing me and my rock.  
“Kairi! What are you doing here?” Gray exclaimed.  
“I can assure all three of you that you won’t make it to S-Class, even if you do finish this mission.” I started. “Gramps asked me to follow you Gray, just in case. I think he knew you’d join in eventually. And thanks to all of you, I lost our only way of contacting home in that tsunami.”  
“You can’t take us home!” Natsu whined.  
“I can, and I will.” I replied, crossing my arms. “You’ve broken the rules, you all deserve whatever punishment Gramps sees fit.”  
“What kind of punishment?” Lucy asked.  
“Thrown out of Fairy Tail most likely.”  
“Oh come on Kairi, you know you wanted to do this mission.” Gray smiled. “You even said you were thinking about it.”  
“Yes, by myself. I can legally do that, you know.” I replied. Gray walked towards me, I stepped back off of the rock. “Don’t even think about it. That’s cheating.” I uncrossed my arms and pointed at him accusingly. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me close. He wrapped his arms around me, and my face was in his shoulder. It felt really nice to hug, and it felt as if my body melted into it. “That’s cheating.” I accused again, but my voice was muffled by his shirt.  
“I know.” he replied. He pulled away from the hug. I huffed out in annoyance.  
“Right.” I coughed slightly as I felt my cheeks burn intensely. “I’m not agreeing to this, I very much disagree with everything you’re doing.” I stated as I followed the group through the forest.  
“We know.” Lucy smiled.

We made it to some kind of village, but it was surrounded by a huge wooden fence, it was at least ten times our size. We stood at what seemed to be the opening of the gate, and it said Keep Out on it.  
“We found the village, now what?” Gray asked.  
“Check out that gate, when they say keep out, they mean it.” Natsu added.  
“Hello?” I shouted. “We’re here for the S-Class mission? We’re from Fairy Tail.” no answer.  
“Let’s bust it!” Natsu grinned.  
“No!” Lucy shrieked.  
“Who goes there?” shouted a voice on the other side.  
“We’re from Fairy Tail.” Lucy repeated.  
“Why weren’t we notified when you accepted the job?” they asked.  
“Uh…?” Lucy hesitated.  
“Our Guild Master is very lazy. He does it a lot!” I lied.  
“Then let me see your emblems! Right now!” they replied. Natsu showed his right arm, Happy showed his back. Lucy held up her hand, I held my arm up, and Gray pulled his shirt up high enough.  
“They’re here! They’re really here!” the gate started to move up, so we could get in, and a bunch of hooded cloaked people were waiting.  
“I’m Moka, the village chief. On behalf of everyone here, I welcome you.” the chief was hard to hear with his entire face being covered. “Pleasantries aside, there’s something you need to see. Now, my people.” he looked back to them. They all discarded the robes and what was left behind were people with limbs of demons. Moka was a short, bald man with long silver sideburns running to his hips. He was wearing a necklace with what seemed to be made out of animal teeth, the centrepiece was an animal skull. He was wearing a white-tribal kilt that featured a red ringed circle and two green stripes encircled the trimming, and his right hand was the limb of a purple demon.  
“It’s just like what happened to the boat guy.” Gray spoke out.  
“The man who brought you here?” I questioned as I looked closer.  
“Wow! Your sideburns!” Natsu cried out.  
“Not that. I was trying to show you my arm.” the old village chief frowned. “Everyone on the island has suffered horrible disfigurements because of this curse. Not even the animals have been spared.” the chief explained.  
“Please excuse me for asking, but what makes you think it’s a curse, sir? It could be some kind of infectious disease.” Gray countered.  
“We’re consulted with dozens of doctor’s young man, but they all agreed that no such disease exists. You see, all these symptoms began around the same time the moon fell under an evil spell.”  
“What kind of spell?” Lucy asked.  
“Since ancient times this island has absorbed the light of the moon, clotting it to grow almost as beautifully as the moon itself, however several years ago, the moons colour began to change and an eerie purple glow was cast upon the island.” he explained.  
“So the moon turned purple?” Natsu questioned.  
“It’s coming out from behind the clouds!” Happy gasped. We all looked up, and they were telling the truth, instead of a pale glow emitting from it, it was a hazy purple.  
“Wow, it really is purple.” Lucy commented.  
“Man that’s creepy looking.” Gray added.  
“It’s the curse. Stand back, the change is about to begin.” the chief ordered. What he said, never registered in my mind. I was still looking up at the sky for any sign of a clue. It wasn’t until Gray pulled me back and out of the way that I even realised that these people were changing into demons before our eyes. They were screaming in pain as their bodies contorted.  
“Why is this happening to them?” Natsu asked.

Soon after they had completely changed, they stood as calmly as they did before.  
“I’m sorry if our appearance frightens you.” Moka apologized.  
“It’s okay, I’m just confused.” Gray replied.  
“You poor people.”  
“Oh man… you guys look so… cool!” Natsu gushed. I swear he had hearts in his eyes.  
“Uh Natsu…” I frowned slightly.  
“It’s awesome! I’m so jealous.” he grinned.  
“He thinks we look cool?” one of them asked.  
“Natsu, we’re here to change them back.” I sighed. “Whether they look cool, or not, they want to look like their original selves again.”  
“Oh, I guess we should help them out then.” he chuckled.  
“That’s why we’re here.” Happy replied. Lucy just sighed.  
“Get a clue man.” Gray muttered.  
“As you’ve witnessed, whenever the purple moon shows its face in the sky, everyone in the village takes on a horrific demon form. If it isn’t a curse, then what else could it be?” most of the villagers were crying, they were all so upset that this was happening to them. “We’ll return to normal once the morning comes and the sun has risen. However there are some poor souls who can no longer switch back to their human forms for they have lost their minds.” Moka explained.  
“How sad.” Lucy murmured.  
“The fate for them, these unfortunate souls in a grip of madness, we’ve no choice but to put them to death.” he sighed. All of us gasped in shock.  
“But they might change back to normal someday.” Natsu argued.  
"If we wait for that to happen, the moon monsters will surely kill us all. We’ve tried capturing them, but they always broke free. It’s no use.” Moka teared up, and some tears escaped down his demonic cheek. He pulled out a picture and looked at it. “Once it takes a hold, there’s no way to save them. I should know, I was forced to kill my very own son.” he cried. Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Happy all looked at the picture and gasped.  
“What is it?” I asked.  
“That’s the guy from the boat.” Lucy stuttered out. “But we just saw him…”  
“Shh.” Gray started. “Now I understand why he disappeared on us like that.”  
“Can you please tell me what you know?” I asked confused.  
“He’s dead, but his soul can’t rest in peace.” Gray explained.  
“You all met and talked with a ghost?” I questioned confused. I couldn’t believe in that, ghosts didn’t exist, no matter who believed it, they were not real!  
“Please! Lift the evil curse from our island. If this goes on much longer, we may all fall victim to it. We’ll die!”  
“We’re not gonna let that happen!” Natsu shouted. “We can fix this, I promise you.”  
“There’s only one way this wretched curse can be lifted. The moon… the moon must be destroyed!” “We’ll do our best. I promise.” I replied. “But we can’t do anything tonight, can we stay somewhere for the night?” I asked.  
“You can rest in our spare house.” the chief answered, pointing to one of the huts.  
“Thank you.” all of us stepped inside the empty house. It was getting pretty late now, and we’d all be sleeping soon.  
“He wants us to do something impossible.” Lucy sighed. “Destroy the moon? There’s no way that’s possible.”  
“It’s not, but I just don’t know if that’s what needs to be done.” I replied.  
“I never knew the moon could be so creepy.” Happy added from his spot on the window sill.  
“Hurry and close the window, you heard what the chief said, we should stay out of the moonlight!” Lucy reprimanded. “You may not care, but I don’t want to risk turning into some freaky looking monster.”  
“I’m not so sure about this job guys.” Natsu groaned.  
“Do they really think we can destroy the moon?” Gray asked.  
“I wonder how many punches it’ll take.” Natsu grinned. “Think I can handle it?”  
“You’re not punching it!” I exclaimed.  
“Yeah, don’t be stupid man.” Gray glared.  
“Natsu… there’s not a wizard alive who is strong enough to do that.”  
“But that’s the job we were hired to do.” Natsu replied. “We can’t take a job then back out, because that would make Fairy Tail look bad.”  
“What they’re asking can’t be done.” Gray replied. “How do you think you’re going to get to the moon anyway?”  
“With Happy?”  
“I don’t think so.” Happy sighed.  
“You shouldn’t have taken this job in the first place!” I groaned. “It’s clear that none of you are ready to do this. You can’t break or destroy the moon, tell me… what are you going to do?”  
“Okay…” Lucy started thinking. “We can’t destroy the moon, but if we do some investigating we might be able to find a different way to lift the curse on the island.” she suggested.  
“Good, that’s the only thing we can do, at least one of you thought of it.” I looked to Gray, who was about to pull off his shirt.  
“You kids can do what you want, but after the day I’ve had, I need some shuteye.” he was in his boxers, and pulling off his socks.  
“Please don’t take off anymore clothes!” Lucy exclaimed.  
“Okay, our investigation starts tomorrow morning!” Natsu grinned. He flopped down on one of the beds. “I’m hitting the sack.”  
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Gray replied as he laid down. I was pretty positive they fell asleep straight away.  
“They snore.” I pointed at the boys asleep.  
“I think I’ll be too tired to even hear them.” Lucy smiled, lying down herself.  
“Goodnight Lucy.” I murmured softly. There was no way I was going to even try sleeping near them both. I left the hut we were in, and looked up at the purple moon. I remembered seeing the moon on the boat ride, I couldn’t remember if it was purple or not though.

Morning came around sooner than I thought it would, I only realised when Lucy came out and saw me there.  
“Kairi, have you been out here all night?” she asked.  
“Depends, were you awake all night?” I replied.  
“Yeah.”  
“Then yes, I was.”  
“What would you have said if I said no?”  
“I would’ve said I spent the night inside, but you can’t lie to someone who knows otherwise. Don’t tell Gray, I have trouble sleeping and he doesn’t like it.”  
“I won’t, are you ready to look around the island?”  
“Yeah, the boys are up right?” Lucy nodded.  
“It’s so early…” Natsu groaned stepping outside.  
“Yeah, I’m never up at this time.” Gray added yawning.  
“You two kept me up all night, and I’m not complaining so stop whining and let’s go!” Lucy said triumphantly, before pulling out one of her silver keys. “_**Open! Gate of the Clock Constellation. Horologium!**_” a large grandfather clock appeared, and even told us the time.  
“The time is 7:48.” He said that as soon as he appeared, and Lucy then climbed inside of it, and it walked her around, and spoke what she said, since we couldn’t hear her.  
“Do you really think we’ll be able to find another way to lift the curse?” Natsu asked.  
“Yes, there definitely is.” I replied. “But I don’t know what it is.”  
“The village may think the moon is cursed but everyone else likes it.” Gray spoke. “And destroying it, might mess things up.”  
“You’re right!” Natsu exclaimed. “If we didn’t have the moon then tides would get all crazy and at night the sky would get all crazy pitch black.”  
“Without it, salmon could go extinct, and they’re my favourite fish!” Happy added.  
“At least you guys realise why we can’t.” I replied.  
“Would you guys quiet down, we don’t know what’s lurking out here so we shouldn’t draw any attention, the lady demands impatiently.” said Horologium. The clock was undeniably the weirdest thing ever.  
“You should walk on your own.” Natsu told her.  
“He’s right, you just summon your spirits because you’re lazy?” Gray asked.  
“Listen… this curse is freaking me out. We have no idea what we’re up against and I’m scared, she says nervously.” Horologium said.  
“Are you kidding? This is awesome!” Natsu grinned. “S-Class Quests rule!”  
“I bet I could probably freeze that stupid curse.” Gray commented.  
“You’re not going on another one ever again, you understand that right?” I glared. We were out of the camp by a few miles and there was some heavy stomping nearby. “What the hell is that?” I asked, looking around. We turned around to see a huge shadowed rat, almost the size of the Lullaby Demon was staring at us, looking at us like we were food.  
“What the hell?” Natsu screamed.  
“It’s huge!” Gray retorted. The rat leaned back and opened its mouth. Gray placed his hands together. “_**Ice-Make: Shield!**_” the shield did nothing because it released a nasty smelling gas. The smell almost knocked Natsu out, I guess his dragon senses weren’t always a good thing.  
“Run!” I screamed as it stepped closer to us. It chased after us, and released more of the terrible gas.  
“_**Ice-Make: Floor!**_” Gray shouted, touching the dirty ground. The ground around us froze completely, causing the huge rat to slip and slide.  
“You should’ve done that in the first place.” Natsu started.  
“Shut up Natsu!” Gray replied, glaring at him.  
“Stop fighting.” I sighed.  
“Natsu started it.”  
“And I’m finishing it.” I looked at Lucy, but she was looking at a temple to our right.  
“There’s some kind of building over there, we should hide while we have the chance.” Lucy suggested.  
“We should kick its butt while we have the chance!” Natsu and Gray both shouted.  
“No, please don’t.” I sighed, watching them attack the poor animal that was unconscious from the fall.

When they actually stopped, Lucy and I forced them to follow us to the temple with moon crescents on it. Slowly we stepped inside, the building was huge on the inside compared to what it actually seemed on the outside. The area was in serious damage, columns had been broken all over the place.  
“This place is massive.”  
“Yeah, and it’s falling apart.” Natsu replied.  
“I wonder how old it is.” Gray added.  
“Why are there moons everywhere?” I asked as we looked around more, there were moon pictures on every surface.  
“Well it makes sense, Galuna used to be called The Island of the Moon.” Gray explained.  
“Moon Island, Moon Curse, and weird moon symbols. You gotta wonder what it all means.” Lucy commented.  
“Man this place is a wreck.” Natsu walked away. “This floor doesn’t even look safe to walk on.” he stomped around.  
“Please don’t do that!” I exclaimed, panicking. The spot where Natsu was standing broke first, then the whole floor did.  
"Natsu you idiot! Look what you did!” Gray shouted as we fell. We landed on hard ground underneath the temple. I groaned as I tried to sit up.  
“Is everybody okay?” Natsu asked quickly.  
“I’d be better if you hadn’t knocked out the floor!” Lucy shouted.  
“Here’s a thought, if you think before you act, maybe you wouldn’t cause so much destruction!” Gray shouted too. We all got up from the rubble underneath us, though it definitely just killed my back to do so.  
“So think you can fly us out of here?” Lucy asked the blue cat.  
“No, sorry.”  
“It’s a secret cave! This is so cool!” Natsu exclaimed running off through a tunnel way.  
“Natsu, don’t run away!” I shouted after him. We all had to follow him, we shouldn’t separate at all. But when Natsu stopped in his tracks and stared up at something in awe, I sped up to catch a look at what he was staring at.  
“Hey guys, what’s that?” I looked up and gasped. A huge icicle was there. But it wasn’t just a simple icicle, it was something frozen… a monster in an iced cage. I stepped closer to it.  
“What is it?” I questioned curiously.  
“That’s impossible.” Gray quivered out. “It’s Deliora!” he stepped forward, just a few steps in front of me. “But how? How could this happen?”  
“Gray…?” I asked.  
“Why is it here? What the hell is it doing on Galuna Island!” he shouted angrily.  
“Gray, what is this thing?”  
“There’s no… no way.” his hands shook violently. I grabbed his hands with mine.  
“Gray, please try to calm down.” Lucy soothed. Gray took deep, heavy breaths. “Now, can you tell us about it?”  
“It’s Deliora, the Demon of Destruction.”  
“Demon of Construction?” Natsu asked.  
“DE-struction.” Happy corrected.  
“But why is it here?” Gray questioned himself. “It doesn’t make any sense!” footsteps were coming down the tunnel we took to find this demon. Gray refused to make any movement, so I had to drag him behind some rocks so we could hide. It was two men, a blue-haired bushy eye-browed one, and another who had decided to look somewhat like a dog. They said they heard voices down here, our voices. The dog-man must’ve been called Toby, because the blue haired man asked if he’d been exposed to Moon Drip.  
“Moon Drip? Could that be the name of the curse?” Lucy whispered. I didn’t answer as another person walked up, a slim pink haired female.  
“Yuka, Toby, something terrible has happened.” she said softly.  
“What now, Sherry?” replied the blue haired man who’s name must be Yuka.  
“It’s Angelica, she’s been attacked and I’m sad.”  
“You’re moping because someone beat up your stupid pet rat!” shouted the dog-man.  
“She’s not a rat! She’s a brave hunter prowling the jungle to protect us. She is… love!”  
“I don’t know who these people are, but talk about a bunch of weirdos.” Lucy muttered. “Especially the chick with the pet rat.”  
“I think the dog-man is weirder.” I replied.  
“Judging from the scent I picked off of them, they’re not from the island.” Natsu whispered.  
“And they don’t look like they have the demon curse.” Happy added.  
“Intruders you say?” asked Yuka.  
“And it’s almost time to begin collecting moonlight again.” sighed Sherry. “Oh, this makes me so sad. This news would displease the Cold Emperor. We should get rid of them before he finds out.”  
“Agreed.”  
“Since they’ve seen Deliora, we can’t allow them to live. We’ll give them the gift of eternal rest. We’ll give… them love!” while they were talking, Happy picked up a small rock and flew away down the tunnel with it. He dropped it and it sounded out through the tunnel, making them think that was someone there.  
“What was that?” asked Sherry. They ran towards it, and Happy flew back towards us.  
“Nice job cat.” Lucy smiled.  
“Aye.” he replied, we all stood up now that we didn’t have to hide.  
“We should’ve grabbed them and beat some answers out of them.” Natsu glared.  
“No way, we don’t know what they’re trying to do here. We need other information first.” I replied.  
“This job keeps getting more and more complicated.” Natsu sighed.  
“Yeah, who is this Cold Emperor guy?” asked Happy.  
“Deliora…” Gray whispered. “I still don’t understand what anyone would want with it… and how the hell were they even able to find it?”  
“Was it hidden somewhere?” Lucy asked.  
“It was sealed away. Inside a glacier on the Northern Continent. A decade ago, this immortal demon ravished Ishgar. Countless people lost their lives, the woman who taught me how to use my magic, my Master, Ur sacrificed everything to seal it away! I don’t know if it has anything to do with the curse on this island…” icicles were coming from Gray’s hands as he trembled. “But I do know that it doesn’t belong here, this Cold Emperor we have to find out who it is, if they tarnish my masters legacy… they’re gonna regret the day they were born!” Gray shouted angrily.


	6. Cold Emperor Lyon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gray meets a familiar face, who could it be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for continuing to read this! I wish I could upload more often, but I just forget honestly.
> 
> Has anyone else's life been taken over by Animal Crossing though? Hit me up, if you play :)

“Deliora…”  
“Are you sure this is the demon your master sealed away?” Natsu asked. Our group was still in the tunnel, we were looking at the frozen demon.  
“There’s no doubt about it.” Gray replied.  
“I wonder why it was transported all the way from the Northern Continent to Galuna Island.” Happy asked.  
“You don’t think this demon has anything to do with the island’s curse do you?” Lucy asked.  
“Those guys mentioned collecting moonlight, I think it’s possible.” I replied.  
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised, it may be enclosed in ice, but that thing is still alive!” Gray replied. “Sweet!” Natsu grinned running up to the edge, swinging his arm back. “Give me a go at it, I ain’t afraid of no stupid demon!”  
“Brute force isn’t the only way to solve problems Natsu.” Lucy sighed.  
“A little fire ought to do the trick!” Gray turned swiftly and he punched Natsu in the face. Natsu groaned in agony as he fell back a few feet.  
“Gray!” I shouted, grabbing onto his arm. Gray was seething angrily.  
“What’s the deal?” Natsu shouted as he sat up. “What’d you hit me for, Gray?” he glared.  
“I don’t want you and your flames anywhere near it!” he shouted back. “If that ice melts and Deliora is revived, there’s no way we’d be able to stop it.” he explained.  
“Come on…” Natsu stood up. “Do you really think a huge chunk of ice would be that easy to melt?” Gray looked up slightly, but then back down.  
“No…” he muttered.  
“Gray, are you alright?” I asked softly. Lucy trudged up to the other side of Gray, and placed her arm on his shoulder in comfort.  
“I’m the one who got hit for no good reason!” Natsu shouted. “Watch your temper man!”  
“Please, you’re one to talk.” Happy snickered.  
“Many years ago, my master Ur, cast a spell called Iced Shell on this demon. Enclosing it in a form of ice that can’t be melted, it’s so strong that even the most powerful flame spells have no effect on it. If they knew that the ice couldn’t be melted, then why did they bring it here?” Gray asked.  
“Maybe they don’t know?” I suggested.  
“They could’ve brought it here to at least try.” Lucy added.  
“But why would they do that?” Gray shouted.  
“I have no idea!” Lucy cowered slightly.  
“Gray! There’s no need to take it out on others. We have no idea why Deliora is here!” I exclaimed. Gray sighed.  
“I just don’t get it. Who would anyone bring Deliora here, and more importantly why?”  
“We need answers.” Natsu replied. “Let’s go find those guys.” he suggested.  
“Yeah, okay.” Lucy agreed.  
“No! We’re gonna stay here and wait.”  
“Wait for what?” Happy asked.  
“For the moon to come out.”  
“The moon? It’s the middle of the afternoon, forget that. If I have to hang out here all day, I’ll die of boredom.” Natsu complained.  
“Why does the moon matter?”  
“We need to see if the curse, and Deliora are connected.” Gray explained. “Staying here is good, so we’ll stay. I heard those guys say they were collecting moonlight as well.” he added.  
“I heard it too, so I guess the only way we’ll find out is if we stay.” Lucy nodded.  
“I’m not waiting! We got work to do!” Natsu yelled. But then, he was on the ground, snoring his head off.  
“That was easy.” I said, looking at him sprawled out on the ground.

Hours had passed, but nothing had happened. I wasn’t sure if it was night yet or not though, we couldn’t tell from in here. Natsu was still sleeping, Gray had sat all by himself, and I had the feeling like I wasn’t welcome to sit by him. Lucy, Happy and I sat huddled together, as our stomachs growled for food.  
“Must be nice, he doesn’t have to worry about anything other than eating, fighting and sleeping.” Lucy sighed, looking at Natsu.  
“Aye. That’s Natsu for you.”  
“I gotta admit, I’m a little bit jealous.” I nodded slightly at Lucy’s words. I lifted my gaze away from Natsu and looked up at Gray as he stared into nothing. “Aw, I know I agreed to wait, but this is so boring.” Lucy complained.  
“Lucy, it’s not supposed to be fun.” I told her.  
“Oh! I know!” she grinned. She pulled out one of her keys. “**Open! Gate of the Harp Constellation. Lyra!**” a young girl who looked as though she was an angel with wings on her back appeared from the Celestial Spirit. She was grinning super big at Lucy.  
“Oh wow, I haven’t seen you in forever Lucy!” she had golden hair that was waist length, but curled slightly at the end. Her cheeks were constantly blushed from what I could tell. Her eyes were big and round, with dark irises. She was wearing a long blue dress with pink fabric wrapped around her waist.  
“Hey Lyra.”  
“Say… how come you never call me anymore?” the spirit asked. “It’s not fair, I would love to help you out, but you ignore me, meanie.”  
“Meanie huh? You’re the one who told me you were only available three days a month.”  
“Are you sure about that?”  
“Great another weirdo.” Happy sighed.  
“I agree. What exactly did you call her for?” I asked.  
“I sing!” the girl said excitedly. “What would you like to hear? Any requests?”  
“No.” Lucy answered.  
“Do you know any songs about fish?” Happy asked. He was easily ignored.  
“I’ve got a song, you’ll love it Lucy!”  
“Lyra has the most beautiful singing voice.” Lucy smiled.  
“Well Mira is a singer too, you know, and she sings songs about fish for me.” Happy replied indignantly. Lyra started playing her harp that appeared with her. And then her soft voice started to sing.

“Words are born into air... and quickly fade out in the wind…” Lyra sang softly and slowly, it seemed to be a sad song. “But they find their way inside you… where they live on forevermore.” I looked towards Gary once more. Slowly I stood up and walked over to him. “When the skies are dark and full of rain, look inside your heart… light so warm and all aglow… shining just like the sun.” Gary didn’t notice me as I sat behind him and wrapped my arms around his body. Gary was slouched over, his fingers entwined with one another. “You can see just how much you’ve grown, how strong you are… love will open up to you… and it starts from the day that you… first heard those words…” I felt his body tremble once again. I looked over his shoulder and saw a tear roll down his cheek.  
“Gray?” I whispered. “What’s wrong?”  
“Nothing.” he replied. His voice broke halfway through, allowing me to realise just how upset he was. “I’m fine.” he lied.  
“You seem upset.” Happy commented.  
“One of Lyra’s talents is singing songs that relate to what her audience is feeling.” Lucy suggested, turned out the others realised he was upset too.  
“Then make her play something else.” I replied.  
“Yeah, play something a little more upbeat.” Lucy nodded.  
“You should’ve said so.” Lyra replied.  
“I think we should skip the song, we need to stay quiet. We don’t want to be found.” Gray added. For a while it was silent, I think Lucy and Happy fell asleep. But Gray and I hadn’t yet. “I wasn’t crying.” Gray started.  
“I know.” I replied softly.  
“I’m serious.”  
“I know you are. It’s okay. I wouldn’t tell anyone if you were anyway. Gray, whoever is doing this, we’ll stop them. Maybe this demon is connected to the curse, but if it’s not, a demon takes priority.” I explained.

Gray and I must have fallen asleep at some point because we woke up to Lucy and Natsu shouting about the ground shaking. As I opened my eyes, Gray had just lifted his head up, but something else caught my eye. A purple beam of magic was directed from the roof straight into Deliora. As seconds passed, the beam grew twice as much in its circumference.  
“It’s a beam of light!” Lucy shouted.  
“Why is it purple?” Gray asked. “It must be moonlight.”  
“What’s going on? I’m getting scared!” Happy whimpered.  
“It’s going directly on Deliora, someone’s trying to use moonlight to break it.” I explained.  
“Let’s go! We have to find out where the lights coming from!” Gray ordered. We all nodded and ran back the way we came. We were back in the room that we crashed into from before. We all searched for a set of stairs or a door that could lead us outside. I found some stairs shortly after.  
“Here, this should lead us back upstairs, or maybe even the roof.” I pointed, the others followed after me as we ascended up them, running at full speed. The floor we reached was the same one as before, but just like below the beam of purple light was showing through the roof again.  
“Why would someone cast a magic circle in this old temple?” Gray asked.  
“Let’s find out!” Natsu ran up a second set of stairs nearby. As we reached the top of them, we could see the starry night sky. What we saw was shocking, the purple beam shot up into the sky, right from the moon, and surrounding the ominous beam was cloaked cult members. They were chanting loudly. We hid behind some old ruins that were scattered all over the top of the temple.  
“What are they doing?” Natsu asked.  
“The moon…” Gray added.  
“It looks like those robed freaks are chanting some spell to collect the moonlight.” Natsu answered his own question.  
“And they’re shining it on Deliora…” Lucy replied. “But why?”  
“It’s a Dispelling Spell.” added a female voice. I felt myself jump slightly as I really wasn’t expecting Lucy’s Celestial Spirit to still be here. “Called the Moon Drip.” Lyra explained.  
“What are you still doing here?” Lucy asked.  
“I see… that’s what they’re trying to do.”  
“Okay… geez fill us in.” Lucy said impatiently.  
“They’re using the Moon Drip Spell to melt the ice surrounding that demon underground, so that they can resurrect it.” Lyra explained.  
“What?” I exclaimed softly.  
“They can’t! The ice used in an Iced Shell can’t be melted.” Gray replied angrily.  
“I hate to say it, but it’s not entirely true.” Lyra replied. "While the Iced Shell is strong, it can be melted using Moon Drip, focused moon energy can break any magical spell.” Lyra explained.  
“Idiots!” Gray shouted. “They’ve never witnessed the wrath of Deliora!”  
“I think the islanders believe the curse against them, may actually be side effects of the Moon Drip. Concentrated moon energy can contaminate your body.” Lyra suggested. “I’m afraid those poor islanders have been exposed to way too much of it.”  
“I’ll make them pay.” Natsu grunted. Lucy used her elbow to hit him in the chin.  
“We’re not doing anything right now.” I ordered.  
“Someone’s coming this way.” Lucy whispered. I looked to see an armoured person walking towards the cult. He was wearing an impressive fancy white cape, and his helmet had two huge ram-like horns on them, and a purple plume. Behind the person were the people that were looking for us, down in the tunnels. The three who we had seen before, in the tunnels told the armoured man that they had searched all day for us, and found nothing. This time I finally got a good look at them, Sherry had blue eyes, pink hair, large breasts, and a curvaceous body. Her hair was tied in pigtails, her choker tied into a ribbon, a purple and pink short spaghetti dress with light pink trimmings, black leggings, and high-heeled sandals. Her dress appeared to have two long and thin wings at the back. Yuka was a short, slim young man distinguished by his extremely brushy, squared black eyebrows. His eyes, too, were black, and while his hair was arranged in a number of spikes pointing upwards with a particularly large one topping his forehead, was unusually, bright blue. Yuka sported a green coat reaching down to his knees, sporting black sections in correspondence to the sleeves outer part and on the sides' lower parts, below a plain dark belt with a rectangular buckle which, together with the two vertically striped, overlapping hems placed on the front, kept the garment closed. Yuka's pants were dark and loose, getting more fitting in correspondence to his ankles, while his plain shoes were light-coloured. Toby was a lean-built, mildly muscular young man of average height with distinctive animal features: he had a pair of canine ears sitting on his head, a small dark nose and a lower part of his face which was colored differently from the rest of his body, bearing resemblance to a canine muzzle. He has shoulder-length, straight brown hair, large round eyes with black pupils and dark eyebrows. Both of his biceps were adorned by tattoos. I heard Sherry call him Cold Emperor. As he spoke I heard Gray gasp.  
“Gray? What is it?” I asked quietly.  
“That guy is their leader.” Natsu glared.  
“He’s trying to act all high and mighty, wearing that stupid mask.” Lucy frowned.  
“Has Deliora been awakened yet?”  
“It should be tonight or tomorrow.”  
“The time has come. If you find those intruders, kill them. I don’t want anyone getting in my way.”  
“They must’ve been villagers, the only other people on this island.”  
“Then, destroy the village!” the Cold Emperor ordered. “It’s a shame there has to be bloodshed.”  
“No!” I exclaimed. “They didn’t do anything!” Natsu, Lucy, Happy and I weren’t going to let this happen, but Gray had frozen in place, he kept staring at the one in charge.  
“That voice!” he muttered. “No, it can’t be!”  
“I’ve had enough of this sneaking around business!” Natsu shouted, standing up. “It’s not the villagers! We’re the intruders!” he shot fire out from his mouth. It caught their attention, they’d be stupid if they didn’t. They all stared at us.  
“And here I hoped we could do this easily.” I sighed, standing up too.  
“There’s no turning back now.” Lucy stood up after me.  
“I know that mark, they’re from Fairy Tail.”  
“Don’t worry about them, go eradicate the village.” the Cold Emperor ordered.  
“It wasn’t them!” I shouted.  
“Anyone who stands in my way, whether it’s deliberately or not is my enemy.” he replied. Natsu growled and ran towards him, and so did Gray. Gray willed himself to go faster.  
“Stop this crazy ceremony now!” Gray placed his hands together and hit the ground. Ice travelled towards this Cold Emperor. But he did the same thing as Gray, but with only one hand. Ice travelled towards ice. It connected in the middle, and then broken ice shards fell around us.  
“He’s an Ice Wizard too!” Happy exclaimed.  
“Lyon!” Gray glared.  
“You know him?” I exclaimed.  
“How could you? Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”  
“Oh Gray… it’s been quite a while hasn’t it?”  
“Why would you revive Deliora?”  
“To think that you were one of the wizards called to this island to help those poor villagers. Did you come knowing you would find me?” this Lyon asked. “Or is this just mere coincidence? Not that it makes any difference to me.”  
“An acquaintance of yours Cold Emperor?” asked Yuka.  
“Do as you were ordered, I can handle the intruders on my own.” the three quickly disappeared. “Hey! Wait, come back here!” Natsu flailed around trying to catch them, he got closer to Lyon.  
“No! Natsu don’t go near him!” Gray shouted. Lyon held out a hand and ice started forming around Natsu.  
“Natsu!” Lucy shouted next to me.  
“Happy! Get the girls out of here!” Gray ordered.  
“I’m not leaving!” I shouted back.  
“Get away from here Kairi.” Happy picked up Lucy, just like he usually does with Natsu. Happy looked to me.  
“Just take her and go, because I’m not going anywhere.”  
“Aye.” Happy flew away quickly. I ran up to where Gray was, but he stepped in front of me, and blasted ice to Lyon. Lyon shielded himself.  
“I told you to leave!” Gray yelled.  
“There’s no way I’m leaving you alone with this guy.”  
“I can’t move!” Natsu complained. Ice covered his body almost 90%; his feet, hands and head were still free. If I get close to it, it could even freeze me as well.  
“Fine, stay, just don’t get too close.” Gray gritted his teeth.  
“You only distracted me enough to let two of your group run away, there’s still three of you here.”  
“Don’t underestimate the power of Fairy Tail Wizards.” Natsu glared. “Now-!” he shouted, but his sentence was short lived as Gray kicked the ice, sending him to roll all the way down the side of the temple.  
“Gray!” I screamed, watching the ball of ice drag Natsu down. “What are you doing?”  
“You’re as reckless as ever. Was he not one of your allies?”  
“You and I both know that with one spell you could blow up that ice, and him with it.” Gray replied, glaring at the man opposite us.  
“So you chose to send him safely outside the range of my magic? That was a very clever move.”  
“I don’t understand why you’re trying to pull the superior act with me Lyon! You’re not! We’re not Ur’s students anymore!”  
“Wait Gray, you two trained together?” I asked, remembering the name of Gray’s magic trainer.  
“I’m well aware of that, painfully aware.” he pulled off his helmet and held it in his arms. “Our beloved teacher is no longer of this world.” the man in front of the two of us, had bluish silver hair, most of which were spiky strands that jutted upwards on top of his head, except for some which were kept pointing down and partially covered the upper left part of his face. Lyon’s eyes were slanted, with dark round pupils and surrounded by similarly dark lines. He had small, linear, dark eyebrows.  
“Her final act was sealing that monster away, are you really so callous that you would try to destroy our master’s legacy?” Gray asked.  
“Don’t delude yourself, we both know you’re the one who killed Ur.” Lyon accused. Gray halted slightly. “And yet, you don’t seem to feel any guilt, how cruel.”  
“You’re wrong! Gray would never do something like that!” I shouted, defensively.  
“Oh, really? You must not know him very well. If you can defend a person like that, what are all the Fairy Tail Wizards like? Enough with the games, Gray murdered Ur, so admit it. I’m surprised you even have the guts to speak her name!” Lyon shot more ice out of his hand, headed straight for Gray and myself. Gray pushed me out of the way and let the ice hit him. He landed in some of the temple ruins up here.  
“Gray!” I called out worriedly.  
“Lyon…” Gray coughed out as he stood back up.  
“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me the guilt is finally getting to you. I’m warning you, don’t try to interfere. Whether you like it or not, I’m resurrecting Deliora.”  
“I won’t let you!” Gray glared.  
“It’ll be like old times, but I’ve grown much stronger since then.” Lyon stated. “**Ice-Make: Eagle!**” loads of moving eagles emerged from Lyon’s hand, they flew in the air, straight to Gray.  
“**Ice-Make: Shield!**” Gray’s shield came up in time, but the eagles just flew up and around it. Each one of them hit him.  
“While your speciality is creating inanimate objects, Static Ice-Make Magic, mine’s creating living creatures, Active Ice-Make Magic.” it was two different forms of the same magic. “Did you forget my ice has that ability?”  
“**Ice-Make: Hammer!**” a large hammer appeared over Lyon but he held his hand up.  
“**Ice-Make: Bear!**” a bear appeared behind Lyon, only to crack the hammer and disappear afterwards. “How pathetic, you still use two hands when casting your Ice Make spells?”  
“Yeah, cause that’s what Ur taught us. Single handed spell casting is incomplete and unbalanced.” Gray explained.  
“Well, I’m the exception to that rule. I surpassed Ur’s skill level a long time ago.”  
“Shut your mouth!”  
“Regardless, ever since we were children, you’ve never been able to place a single hit on me.”  
“I’m a lot stronger now than I used to be!” Gray shouted. “**Ice-Make: Geyser!**” ice ended up covering Lyon’s body, kind of like a cave, it went high up in the air. I watched in awe as it grew high, but Gray’s ice was shattered easily.  
“Nothing has changed. I was always the superior student. I’m still stronger than you. I was able to master single-handed Ice Make Magic, while you have to rely on two hands. It’s just like the old days. We may have chosen different paths, but we’re frozen in time.” Lyon kept getting hits in, and Gray was taking a bad beating. “That’s why I am resurrecting Deliora, to prove that I am Ur’s star pupil. As a child I only ever dreamt of one thing. The day I would surpass Ur’s abilities as a wizard, but you ruined it for me Gray. After she died, I thought my long dream of surpassing her has been dashed. Until I realised, there was one way. If I can defeat Deliora, a demon so strong that not even Ur could defeat it, then I will have surpassed her power. My dream can finally become a reality.”  
“Listen to me, that thing destroyed everything we cared about! You want to bring it back just to prove how strong you are? It’s insane! Please, you can’t do this!” Lyon glared at Gray, hitting him with a flurry of attacks.  
“Please, you can’t do this? Really?” Lyon mocked. “Funny you say that, those were the exact words we said to you that fateful day. Surely, you haven’t forgotten! It’s because you challenged Deliora, that Ur lost her life!” Lyon shouted. “I can’t stand you even speaking her name in my presence! Be gone!” Lyon aimed at Gray again, hitting him 5 times in a row. “This is the end Gray.”  
“Stop!” I screamed. “Stop hitting him.” I stood up from where I had fallen after Gray pushed me.  
“Oh? A girl telling me what to do?” Lyon sneered.  
“Gray didn’t… he wouldn’t…” I stopped. “Gray would never do that! **Water Slicer!**” I shouted, aiming a hand in his direction. The Ice-Make Wizard froze the water and it cracked.  
“You’re quick to defend, but your pathetic water is no match for me.” Lyon lifted his hand once more and I felt my left hand grow a little colder. I looked down, my fingertips were slowly icing over. “You’ll freeze to death before long. I suggest you fix it.” he turned to walk away from me. I widened my eyes and I watched the ice spread a little. I looked back up, and the blond man was gone. As worrying as my hand freezing was, I couldn’t help but place that worry towards Gray.  
“Gray!” I shrieked, running over to where I saw him last. I came past a broken temple wall, and Natsu, who was still encased in ice was looking at Gray as he laid down on the ground still.  
“I couldn’t remember how to get to the village, so I climbed back up to look for it.” Natsu started. I walked over, to see him hold his hand out for Gray to take, but Gray didn’t. So Natsu grabbed Gray’s collar and pulled him up. “I see it now, let’s go.”  
“Wait, I can walk.” Gray replied as he was pulled slightly. Gray stood up and saw me. “Where’s Lyon?”  
“Dunno.” Natsu shrugged.  
“I looked away… but just for a second! He was gone.” I replied. Gray almost fell back down, but Natsu grabbed him. He pulled him up onto the ice ball and let him hang there.  
“We have to hurry and get back to the village before they do.” Natsu instructed. I nodded. Natsu clumsily walked, I bet it wasn’t easy with the ice around him. I walked with him.  
“Hey.” Gray spoke up.  
“Yeah?” Natsu asked.  
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you, I know better.” was Gray talking about coming along originally to try and stop them? I looked up to his face curiously when I saw tears roll down his cheeks.  
“Quit feeling sorry for yourself, just because you lost a fight!” Natsu shouted. “You’re a member of Fairy Tail! We don’t give up when times are tough, so just put it behind you and keep moving forward.”  
“Next time, you’ll beat Lyon.” I grinned. “And we’ll destroy Deliora together if we have to.”  
“That’s right!” Natsu started awkwardly running towards the village, and I kept in line with them. I kept my hand hidden by scrunching up my hand in my sweater, but I could feel it getting even colder.

Gray fell asleep sometime between us meeting with Natsu again, and reaching the village. It was silent between Natsu and I, but I could feel his determination for helping the villagers from Lyon’s lackeys. None of us wanted anything to happen to those poor people.  
“I think I see the village.” Natsu announced. I looked up and there it was, the tall fence that kept the villagers from outsiders. Someone must’ve seen us, because the gate opened way before we were even there. “Let’s go!” Natsu grinned, running up ahead, though it wasn’t like he was too far ahead, he was still heavily weighed down by the ice block covering his body. “Hey guys!” Natsu called as we were close enough. “Are you okay?” I heard Lucy squealing, it was good to know her and Happy got here safely.  
“Stay right there, don’t come any closer!” she panicked. I slowed down to a walk, but Natsu kept running. “Natsu! Stop!” she shouted. When he did finally stop, it seemed everyone let out the breath they had held in, but I guess it didn’t last long, because after one more step, Natsu fell into the ground.  
“Natsu! Gray!” I exclaimed, running away. I saw a pitfall hole, and Natsu was lying on top of Gray’s back.  
“Very funny! We don’t have time to play practical jokes on each other!” Natsu shouted, still in the hole.  
“Don’t talk to me, it was Lucy’s dumb idea.” Happy blamed.  
“I should’ve known!” Natsu glared.  
“It wasn’t a joke, it was a trap!” Lucy replied, frantically.  
“I’m glad you’re okay.” Happy added. “I was worried about you.”  
“We’re fine, but Gray’s down for the count.” Natsu replied.  
“The guy in the mask beat him up that badly?” Lucy asked.  
“He did, Gray didn’t stand a chance.” I answered, looking at Lucy.  
“Whoa! The ice is gone!” Natsu exclaimed. “It must’ve cracked when I fell.”  
“See… told you the pitfall would work.” Lucy chuckled.  
“Excuse me Princess, but I believe the spell was actually broken when he left the castors range of magic.” that was Virgo’s voice, who was standing next to me.  
“I’m free!” Natsu cheered.  
“Yeah, that’s great and all, but can you please bring Gray up here? He’s hurt, he shouldn’t be lying in a dirty hole.” I suggested. Some of the villagers helped Natsu bring him up, and they laid him on the ground. I couldn’t believe he didn’t wake up from that fall. I knelt down on the ground and brushed my hand through his thick hair.  
“How come Lyon’s lackeys haven’t made it here?” Natsu asked.  
“You know, that’s a good question.” Lucy replied thoughtfully. “They left for the village before you, but you got here first…”  
“And we were pretty slow.” I added.  
“I wonder what is taking them so long. Okay guys… hurry up and cover that hole!” Lucy ordered.  
“Uh… no one’s going to fall for that.” I replied.  
“Wait!” cried a villager. “Over there.” they pointed up into the sky. We all looked up, that giant rat was flying! It seemed to be carrying a huge bucket, though we had no idea what was in it.  
“Now my pitfall trap is totally ruined!” Lucy shouted.  
“Wait a second.” I started, standing up to regular height. “Something fell out of that bucket.” it was a round ball of… green jelly? The thing was headed straight for Lucy. “Lucy!” as I shouted for her, Natsu was already grabbing onto her, pushing them both out of its way. It hit the ground, and burnt through the ground, leaving a tiny foot hole.  
“That smell… I knew it was deadly.” Natsu muttered, almost all of the villagers began to freak out. The giant rat proceeded to lift the bucket up and tipped out all of the jelly-like contents. It was going to cover the whole village with how much there was.  
“How are we going to protect ourselves from acid jelly?” Lucy shouted, freaking out herself.  
“Everyone! Listen to me!” I ordered. Some of the villagers stopped to listen. “Huddle into the middle of the village!” I yelled. As some ran into the middle, others were terribly confused. “Lucy, make sure everyone gets in the middle. I can’t have stragglers.” I ordered. Natsu ran too, but he was talking to Happy, who flew him up in the air, holding onto his shirt. They were flying towards the jelly.  
“Everyone’s in the middle.” Lucy explained.  
“Good.” I placed my clenched fists together. “**Water Dome Shield!**” water surrounded us all, it should absorb whatever amount of jelly hit it. Though if Natsu’s plan worked, none of it should, but this is just precautionary.  
“Wait! The chief isn’t here!” a villager shouted. “He’s not leaving Bobo’s grave. Chief, come on, the jelly will kill you!” before we could do anything, Natsu hit the jelly with his flames, sending smaller blobs of it everywhere else. He dispersed it. But some of it was heading to Moka, the Village Chief. “Chief!” it hit, and we all thought it hit him.  
“Hang on, there’s someone there!” Lucy called out. Virgo had grabbed him.  
“You wish to punish him for disobeying you Princess?” Virgo asked.  
“Virgo!” Lucy smiled. I evaporated the shield, and all around us, we could all see that the village was destroyed. The ground was melted downward, leaving a donut shape behind.  
“The village, is all gone…”  
“This is terrible.”  
“Is anyone hurt?” no one replied, which hopefully meant no one was.  
“Bobo’s grave is still standing.” Moka gasped. I looked to see he was telling the truth, though only slightly slanted, the head piece was still up. I smiled at the small miracle until a foot kicked it down. All three of Lyon’s lackeys were there.  
“The Cold Emperor ordered us to eradicate the village and its people. We were trying to show mercy by making your deaths quick and painless.” Sherry sighed. “But since that didn’t work we’ll have to resort to bloodshed.”  
“50 villagers, 3 wizards, shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.” Yuka suggested.  
“You ready?” Natsu asked. I nodded and Lucy replied with a quick yes.  
“Count again, because there’s 4 wizards.” Happy added. I looked back to Gray who was lying on the ground, he opened his eyes. Moka was incredibly angry at what they did to Bobo’s grave, and some villagers took to restraining him. In the meantime, Gray stood up slowly.  
“Let me help you.”  
“No way. Sit back down.” I replied.  
“We don’t need your help.” Natsu added.  
“Don’t do this to me.” Gray panted out. Natsu took two steps towards Gray.  
“Natsu…” I warned.  
“It won’t hurt much.” he replied, hitting Gray in the stomach. Gray fell to his knees. “Just sleep, and get some rest.” Natsu held Gray as he passed out.  
“Why?” Lucy asked.  
“He’s giving Gray some tough love.” Happy replied. “Natsu knows he’s unable to fight, so he had to stop him.”  
“They do care about each other.” I added softly. Natsu brought Gray over to a villager, who kindly took him in their arms. “Can you look after him for us?” I asked.  
“No problem, Miss Kairi.” they replied, as Natsu silently asked them to look after him.

“We’re not leaving…” started Sherry. “Until every person in this village is dead. Angelica?” the giant rat jumped up into the air, and used its tail to propel itself in the air. It picked up Sherry and they flew towards us. Barely missing us. I had to duck so my own head wouldn’t get taken off.  
“We’re not going to let you get away with this!” as Lucy shouted, her voice sounded further away. I looked up, and Lucy wasn’t standing next to me like she had been.  
“She grabbed on?” I asked.  
“She’s stupid.” Happy replied.  
“More like insane!” Natsu shouted. Abruptly the rat stopped using it’s flying tail, and fell to the ground, about a mile away. “Do you think she made it?” Natsu asked.  
“I hope so, but we can’t leave to check.” I frowned slightly.  
“I can!” Happy exclaimed.  
“Oh, right.” I shouldn’t have forgotten that Happy could fly, but I did.  
“I’ll go and check on her.”  
“Thanks buddy.” Natsu replied. Happy flew off in the direction they fell in. “So, now we fight them.” Natsu looked at me, I nodded in determination. Natsu grabbed my right wrist and jumped over to the over side where they were. We landed in between the two. I hit Toby in the face, and Natsu breathed fire at Yuka. He deflected the flames completely with some kind of anti-magic spell.  
“So you can breathe fire? Don’t tell me you’re the Salamander of Fairy Tail?” he asked. I looked away from him to see Toby was getting up off the ground. Natsu and I stood back-to-back as our enemies stood opposite the two of us. Yuka started talking about a guild called Lamia Scale, a guild he used to belong to, apparently so did Toby. Natsu growled and shot fire towards the man opposite him, I felt the heat from behind.  
“Let’s just ignore them and fight!” Natsu shouted.  
“Agreed.” I ran towards Toby, until he spoke.  
“I’m not scared of you.” he grinned. I paused.  
“Oh really?”  
“Yeah, I’m way stronger than you.” he held his hands up, and his nails grew 2 inches longer, and turned green. “Check out my Mega Jellyfish Paralysing Claws. Bet you’ll never guess what these babies can do?” he smirked.  
“Paralyse you?” I questioned. He looked shocked that I was able to ‘guess’ it.  
“How did you know that?” he asked. “You got ESP or something?”  
“No.” I replied. “You’re just… real stupid.”  
“Don’t be talking to me like that!” he swiped a claw at me. I dodged. “With just one swipe from my claws, you’ll be frozen and waiting to die!”  
“I’m already going to freeze to death, your stupid paralysis won’t do anything to me.” he swiped again, and if my body wasn’t made of water, he might’ve got me, but he ripped through water instead. “Hey, you’ve got something on your face.” I pointed out.  
“What where?” he asked.  
“Right here.” I pointed at my forehead to show him, and he touched his own face, he turned ridged, and then fell to the ground on his back. I laughed and turned to see Natsu knock Yuka to the ground.  
“That was easy.” Natsu sighed, he walked over to where Bobo’s grave was, and placed the headstone back up right. “We need to change those people back to normal.” he added.  
“But we really should try and you know… stop Deliora from coming back alive first.” I suggested.  
“Yeah, we should. So let’s go find Lyon and beat his ass!” Natsu smirked.  
“Actually Natsu, one of us should stay and wait for Lucy and Happy to come back, then head up to the temple.”  
“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea. You stay, I’ll fight!” Natsu was already running off. I looked at him, and sighed. I should go find the villagers, see where they’d settled down.


	7. Deliora's Dead but the Curse Still Remains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the reads, and just checking it out. And thanks to IrisRainbowWolf, I think you commenting, really inspired me to want to keep posting!

I found the villagers a fair way away from their original place, but they were already beginning to place tents around as make-shift houses. I found the villager who seemed like he was Moka’s second in command.  
“Glad to see you’re still alright.” he greeted.  
“Those lackeys weren’t anything special, but are all of you okay?” I asked.  
“Thanks to you, we’re just lucky enough to have a storage camp that we can use.”  
“I’m glad. So Lucy hasn’t come back yet has she?”  
“Not that I know of, but I think we’d all know if anyone else was back.” I nodded in response that was completely accurate, you always know when the others were around.  
“Is Gray still asleep?”  
“In that tent over there.” he pointed.  
“Oh, thank you.” I smiled. Our conversation finished and I went into the tent that Gray was sleeping in. I sat by him on my knees. I know he probably wouldn’t wake up just yet, but it was still nice to sit by him. I held his left hand with my right, though my left hand couldn’t really do anything, it was completely frozen, and so was half of my forearm.

I must’ve fell asleep next to Gray because when I woke up, the sun was shining through the door. I felt my legs slowly going numb from sitting on them, so I thought I better take a quick walk around the camp. I was looking at the intricate details of the pretty tents the villagers owned, when I saw Lucy and Happy walking by.  
“Hey! Lucy, Happy! You’re back!” I smiled. “Erza too.” as I said her name, I felt my heart drop into my stomach. “E-Erza?” I questioned seeing her harsh glare.  
“Follow me.” she ordered. I nodded softly and quickly followed the three into a spare tent that was for us. “Why haven’t you brought them back yet Kairi?” Erza asked brutishly.  
“Uh… I was going to! I was following them here, but I lost my Communication Lacrima Crystal, and then…”  
“We forced her to come along.” Lucy interrupted. “Don’t blame her!”  
“Lucy don’t worry about it. I’ve been involved in this since we got here. I own up to my own actions. Erza, this island needs our help.”  
“I don’t care.” she replied.  
“Well you should! This isn’t just about a curse!” I exclaimed. Behind me the cloth ‘door’ opened and Erza’s scariest glare crossed her face. I turned around to see Gray standing there.  
“You made me wait.” Erza looked to him. “Not smart.”  
“Erza?” he shouted in surprise.  
“Lucy’s got me up to speed on everything that’s happened.” she replied.  
“Then if you know, you should help us, help the village.” I told her.  
“You were both sent here to stop Natsu and these two fools, needless to say I’m disappointed.”   
“Where is he anyway?” Gray asked.  
“That’s something I’d like to know.” Erza sighed.  
“The last time I saw him he was fighting against the Cold Emperor’s lackeys with Kairi.” Lucy added. Gray and Erza turned to me.  
“He’s uh… he went to the temple.” I replied.  
“Okay, we’re going to get Natsu.” Erza ordered. “And then we’re going back to the guild.”  
“But we can’t leave the island just yet!” Gray replied. “If Lucy filled you in, then you know exactly what these villagers are going through right now!”  
“And what would be your point?” Erza asked coldly.  
“Our point is, we’re not backing down from this.”  
“I only came here to apprehend you fools for breaking the rules of the guild. I’m not interested in anything other than that. This request is posted on every board in every guild hall. The villagers would be better off with wizards who are cleared for S-Class.”  
“I’m an S-Class Wizard, and this is an S-Class Quest, I’m qualified to stay.” I glared.  
“Erza, how can you be so heartless! We’re trying to help!” Gray exclaimed. Erza looked to him, with her eyes narrowed down.  
“What did you say? Have you chosen to defy the guild?” she requipped a sword, and pointed it at Gray. “You’ll face the same punishment.”  
“Erza, put the sword away. There’s no need for it.” but Gray just grabbed the sword with his hand and lowered it from his face.  
“Do what you must, for me there’s no other choice to be made. I can’t walk away from what I know is right.” Erza pulled her sword away from him, and Gray headed towards the door. “I’m seeing this through to the end, and you can’t stop me.” he looked back. I immediately followed after him, there was no way I was staying behind.  
“Gray!” I called out to him, and he paused slightly. I caught up with him. “Wait a second. Let’s just wait for minute, okay?”  
“Why?” he asked. I looked back to the tent to see Erza, Lucy and Happy following us.  
“That’s why.” I smiled, Gray looked back too, and he looked a little somewhat shocked.  
“So the plan is?” Erza asked as she came up to us.  
“Let’s get to the temple, I know Natsu is going to be there.” they all nodded. We ran towards the direction of the temple.

We were still running when Gray halted.  
“Gray? What’s wrong?” I asked, as the others and I stopped too.  
“Even back when we were kids, Lyon’s always dreamed of surpassing Ur’s magic ability, but since she’s gone and he can’t challenge her directly, he’s decided that it’s up to him to kill Deliora.” Gray sighed, leaning up against a tree. “It’s the one thing that she couldn’t do.”  
“Well yeah, I guess that’s the only way to challenge someone who’s dead.” Lucy added.  
“Listen, there’s something… something I never got to tell him. I kept it secret, Ur made me promise to never let him know, but I have to… Ur may not be with us, but she’s still alive. The Iced Shell spell, uses the user’s body as its ice, the ice covering Deliora is Ur.” we were all shocked at Gray’s confession.  
“What do you mean?” Erza asked.  
“It’s been ten years…” he muttered. “Deliora attacked my hometown, I’ve never seen such destruction. The whole place was wiped out in less than a day. Ur and Lyon found me. They pulled me from the rubble.” Gray told us he was the only one from his town who survived, and on the day he marked a grave for his parents he vowed to stop Deliora one day. “That vow, is how it all began, and from then on, Ur taught me her magic in the Northern Continent.” he explained, telling us how hard it was for him to become used to the cold. They lived a fairly easy life, until Gray heard about Deliora being in a town nearby. Gray became obsessed, and he had planned to follow it. Ur and Lyon had begged him to stay, but he didn’t listen. Gray went off on his own, ready to avenge his parents. We gave Gray some time to think about it, but then we continued walking towards the temple, except when it came within view something was off. I saw Lucy tilt her head to the side.  
“Hey guys…? Is it just me or does that temple look a little crooked right now?”  
“Yeah…? But why?” I asked.  
“I’m guessing Natsu.” Gray replied.  
“Me too.” Erza agreed.  
“I don’t know how he pulled it off though, but he’s the only one who’d do something that crazy. It’s a pretty great idea if he did it on purpose. Since the temple is tilted like that, the moonlight won’t hit Deliora.”  
“It’s Natsu, there’s no way he did it on purpose.” I replied. Looking at the temple we were distracted, just as some flying discs came at us. Erza knocked Lucy out of the way, and Gray and I dodged the others.  
“Who’s there?” Erza asked, shouting.  
“We’ve tracked you down!” exclaimed a cloaked cult member. “Fairy Tail!”  
“We won’t allow you to interfere.” another responded.  
“Not these guys…” Gray sighed.  
“Lyon’s minions?” Erza asked.  
“Something like that.” I replied, shrugging.  
“They’re all around us!” Lucy shouted, worriedly looking around.  
“I can handle this myself.” Erza suggested, requipping a sword.  
“You sure?” Gray asked.  
“I’ll take care of them. You settle things with Lyon.” Gray nodded.  
“I’m staying to fight, I’m no good against Lyon as a Water Wizard.” I replied, creating a ball of water in my hand.  
“I’ll fight too.” Lucy grinned, pulling her whip from her belt.  
“You go on Gray, help Natsu.”  
“Thanks, you guys.” Gray replied.

_“Ur was gone because of me, but Lyon couldn’t accept that.”_

Gray took off, running for the straight for the temple as some of his words ran through my head. Erza started swinging her swords, Lucy started swinging her whip, and even Happy was hitting some members with his special disgusting fish food attack. I kept hitting the cult members with water, but it seemed like we were actually nowhere near getting them all. Suddenly the ground shook slightly, and a huge sound came from the temple, we all stopped. Our enemies and ourselves alike.  
“No way!” Lucy exclaimed. I looked over.  
“The temple’s been fixed? How did they work so fast?” I asked, completely confused. The cultists charged again, and we were fighting once more, the temple having been immediately forgotten about.  
“Do you notice anything strange?” Erza asked.  
“Even though there’s a bunch, their magic energy is weak.” Lucy replied.  
“Exactly, as far as I can tell, there are only five wizards among them.” Erza concluded.  
“Oh man, guess I’ll have to go easy on them.” Happy sighed.  
“Do you think you can handle this Lucy?” Erza asked.  
“Oh, you bet.” Lucy smirked, pulling out one of her keys. **“Open! Gate of the Giant Crab. Cancer!”** a stylish man with red cornrowed hair came through, he had six crab legs attached to his back, and held a pair of funky scissors in his regular human arms.  
“We’ve met before haven’t we?” Erza asked curiously, looking at him.  
“You have?” I questioned, as the crab-man bowed down to Erza.  
“Indeed we have, and as always I’m at your service, miss.”  
“I thought you always said baby!” Lucy exclaimed. “Aren’t you supposed to be at my service? Take them down! But don’t kill them, just rough them up okay?”  
“Alright, baby… uh, Miss.” Cancer started his work on them when the temple erupted a bright purple light from the top.  
“Are they starting the Moon Drip ceremony already?” I asked.  
“Seems that way, but we have to have hope in Gray and Natsu.” Erza replied. I nodded hesitantly, but still… I was worried. “Excellent work.” Erza’s voice interrupted. I looked back, Cancer had done his job and succeeded in just roughing them up. “Now we can go to the temple.”  
“Right.”  
“Wait…” spoke an old female voice. We turned to see two cultists without their masks. “We won’t let you interfere with the Cold Emperor.” the head pieces that the two were wearing were familiar.  
“Are you from Brago?” I asked, having the familiarity kick in.  
“So that’s it, you want revenge.” Erza added, understanding it as well. Brago was one of the many villages Deliora destroyed, and it was were Gray says Deliora was finally stopped. As we were talking, a demonic roar came from the temple it was loud enough to hurt people’s eardrums.  
“Why is it so loud?” I shouted, placing my hands over my ears. It passed shortly but I still felt it ringing in my ears.  
“Go, we’ll deal with these two people.” Erza suggested, looking towards me. I nodded and turned away from the group and ran towards the temple. I just hoped Gray and Natsu were okay. I found the opening to the temple and I jogged inside, looking around most of the main room was completely covered in ice, was this Lyon or Gray’s doing, I wondered, but I knew it was both.

I was searching in the temple, I couldn’t even find my way back down into the tunnels when another huge roar came through and the temple began to shake as well.  
“No way…” I groaned, covering my ears. Another roar came by, and I tried following the entryway that it came from. I found the stairs leading downwards, I vaguely remembered it, so I had to trust my instincts and just go downstairs. I heard Gray’s voice, and began running even faster. He was yelling out to Natsu. I emerged into the cave in time to see Deliora’s strong fist hit Natsu’s flamed fist. The force cracked Deliora’s fist, and then cracks travelled up the arm to its chest. Deliora crumbled to the ground.  
“What the?” Natsu questioned. “I’m stronger than I thought…”  
“Deliora was already dead.” Lyon choked out. He was lying on the ground looking pretty beat up, and Natsu and Gray stood in shock, kind of like I was as well.  
“Gray! Natsu!” I called out to them. They looked back to me, and I held my hand up so they could see me. I walked over to them.  
“For 10 years, Ur has gradually depleted the demon’s life force.” Lyon muttered out. “And what we just saw was nothing more than its last dying breaths.” he slammed his fist on the ground. “My dream is dead. There’s no hope now. I will never surpass Ur.”  
“Your teacher was pretty awesome.” Natsu grinned to Gray.  
“Agreed, Ur was pretty amazing.” I smiled too. I placed my right hand in his left as he used his other hand to cover his face.

_“I freed you from the darkness Gray. I’ve sealed it away forever.”_

As we stared up at the spot where Deliora had once stood, I thought I’d heard a whisper in the air.  
“You’ve saved my life again… thank you Ur.” he choked out.  
“Hey guys! Is everything okay?” it was Lucy who called out. She was running towards us, smiling. Happy was flying next to her, and he flew right into Natsu’s arms. Erza strolled in behind them both, while Natsu was preoccupied with Happy she patiently waited until he saw her. He immediately freaked out, but she grabbed him by his scarf, stopping him from even trying to run away. Gray softly pulled his hand away from mine, and walked over to Lyon, helping him up.

_The ice that was once Ur melted and became water that flowed into the open sea, even though she’s not physically with us, Gray says she’s still alive, and I think he’s right. From the sea, she’ll be able to watch over her beloved students forever. You can almost hear her saying ‘please don’t fight anymore’._

We all decided to go up on top of the temple, it would be a simple night from here on out, and it would be nice to just get a few minutes of silence up there.  
“Haha. Oh yeah!” Natsu shouted. “That’s right, we won!”  
“Aye sir!” Happy added.  
“You know, I was kind of worried for a while there.” Lucy sighed. “But it all worked out, thanks to your amazing teacher.”  
“We totally finished an S-Class quest all by ourselves!” Natsu exclaimed.  
“Do you think Master Makarov will let us on the second floor now?” Lucy asked innocently.  
“You guys are so dead.” I sighed looking at Erza standing next to me. She was glaring at the three non S-Class Wizards.  
“You’re still gonna punish us huh?” Lucy trembled.  
“Isn’t there something you’re all forgetting about?” Erza asked.  
“Yeah, like the villagers?” I added. “We’re here to help them, not Deliora.”  
“Exactly, the quest was to bring them back to their original forms, you haven’t finished yet.”  
“I don’t understand… the curse should be lifted now that Deliora is dead.”  
“Wrong.” Erza replied. “This curse you keep talking about never had anything to do with Deliora. The villagers have been affected by the intense magic energy released by the Moon Drip Spell, in other words, Deliora’s death isn’t going to change anything.”  
“Oh no!” Lucy gasped.  
“Well, then we better go and change them back.” Natsu grinned.  
“Aye sir!”  
“Yeah, but we don’t know how.” Gray added. “Wait, Lyon do you know?” Gray asked his old friend whom we brought up to the roof as well.  
“To be quite honest, I don’t have a clue.” Lyon replied.  
“You don’t know?” Natsu frowned.  
“But they told us the curse started about the same time you guys got here.” Lucy replied.  
“When we first arrived three years ago, we were told there was a village on this island, but we had absolutely no reason to communicate with the villagers, so we left them alone. They never came to the temple to see what we were up to.” Lyon answered.  
“In three years? You’ve never once met?” Erza questioned.  
“I don’t understand, the light from the Moon Drip is so bright you can see it almost anywhere on the island, it’s weird if they saw it every night and never went to investigate.” Lucy wondered.  
“The villagers weren’t transformed by the Moon Drip it doesn’t affect the human body.” Lyon replied.  
“What?” Erza asked.  
“Yeah right, you’re just saying that so you and your lackeys are off the hook.” Natsu accused.  
“It couldn’t, otherwise Lyon would be a demon too, and the others that worked for him.” I explained.  
“Exactly, I’ve been exposed to it as long as they have and I haven’t changed one bit.” he added.  
“That’s true.” Lucy nodded.  
“I wouldn’t trust them, those villagers are hiding something.” Lyon crossed his arms. “But, I’m sure you guild wizards can handle it.”  
“We’re not done with you. You destroyed the village!” Erza shut Natsu up.  
“That’s enough, they were simply doing what they believed to be right, so there’s no need to criticise them for it. Let’s go.” Erza ordered.  
“But what are we gonna do to lift the curse?” Natsu asked.  
“I have no idea.” Erza replied. Natsu and Lucy began to follow after Erza, Gray looked back to Lyon.  
“What are you looking at?” he glared.  
“I know you don’t want to hear it, but you should join a guild. You’ll make new friends, meet new rivals, and maybe even find a new dream to live for.” Gray started. Lyon looked away.  
“Whatever. Just get out of here.” Gray and I locked hands and were behind the others when Lyon called out. “Water girl.” I stopped walking, causing Gray to halt as did the others. I turned around to look at Lyon. “Let me fix your arm.”  
“What? What’s wrong with your arm?” Gray asked, looking down at my right hand. I moved my left hand slightly behind me so it was out of view.  
“Nothing’s wrong with it.” I laughed nervously.  
“I froze her arm.” Lyon replied.  
“You what?” Natsu shouted angrily.  
“It’s fine!” I exclaimed.  
“Until it reaches your heart. You’ll die.” my eyes widened at Lyon’s statement. “I’ll fix it.” I sighed a little, but I walked back over to Lyon and he held his hand out above mine. The ice had reached my shoulder, but I felt it receding downwards and I saw it leave my fingertips and I flexed my fingers slightly.  
“Thanks.” I smiled lightly.  
“Does it feel better?” he asked. I nodded and strode back to my friends and we headed to the new camp of the villagers. Gray also asked me if my hand was okay, I nodded, saying it was fine. There was no way I could tell Gray I couldn’t feel his fingers locked into mine.

We made it back to the camp and no one seemed to be around.  
“That’s weird, where is everybody?” Happy asked.  
“Are you sure they came this way?” Natsu questioned, looking around.  
“Yeah, I wonder where they could’ve gone…” Lucy muttered.  
“Hello!” Happy called out.  
“Since we’re here, I’m gonna grab bandages and medicine.” Gray stepped into the medicinal tent he was resting in earlier. While he was in there someone came out to us.  
“You finally made it back! There’s something you need to see. Please follow me to the village.” we waited for Gray, and then chased after him.  
“The village is back to how it was!” Lucy exclaimed.  
“Wow!” I grinned, it looked exactly how it did beforehand! Natsu started knocking on one of the houses.  
“What’s going on here? Everything’s back to how it was! Did the village go back in time?”  
“Natsu, you shouldn’t touch it.” I told him.  
“What are you saying? That I break everything?” he asked. I looked at him.  
“Yes.” I replied bluntly, but then Natsu quietly thought about something, muttering about nothing in particular.  
“When are you wizards going to destroy the moon huh?” asked Moka, demanding attention from all of us.  
“Destroying the moon will be a simple task sir.” Erza replied to him.  
“What?” we asked surprised.  
“Before I do so, I need to ask some questions. Would you be so kind as to call everyone for a meeting?”

Moka managed to have everyone in the middle of the village as soon as possible. They were all waiting for Erza’s questions, and to be honest I was curious as well, but I was sure it was about the curse, and to do with what Lyon told us.  
“Let me make sure I have my facts straight.” Erza started. “The first time everyone in the village took on these demonic forms is when the moon began to turn purple, is that correct?”  
“Yes.” Moka replied. “During the day we’re fine, but when the moon comes out we transform into what you see now.”  
“And the moon first turned purple about three years ago, right?”  
“Wow, has it really been that long?” a villager asked.  
“We’ve learned that the Moon Drip ceremony has been performed on this island every night for the last three years and each night it produced a beam so bright that you couldn’t have possibly have missed it.” Erza started walking back and forth, but she continued walking left until she fell… right into Lucy’s pitfall. Surprisingly, the pitfall came back with the village too.  
“She screamed like a girl.” Natsu muttered.  
“She’s never done that...” I looked to Lucy who was freaking out, Erza climbed back up and didn’t miss a beat with continuing where she left off.  
“Seriously, didn’t you ever wonder where that light was coming from?” she asked. The villagers looked somewhat confused as she continued without missing a beat. “I don’t understand, why didn’t anyone investigate?”  
“Well…” Moka started. “We would’ve looked into it, but according to village law, our people must never go near that temple.” he explained. I frowned in thought… what on earth would make a village of humans create a law to stop them from entering temple grounds?  
“Why don’t you tell us what’s really going on here?” Erza asked.  
“To be honest, we don’t even know that ourselves. Allow me to explain, we’ve tried to investigate the light many times, we’d take up weapons that we’ve never had to use. We’d venture into the jungle towards the temple, but we could never get near it. We’d get close enough that we could see it through the trees, and then suddenly we’d find ourselves back at the village gate.” he explained.  
“How is that possible?” Lucy asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”  
“We got into the temple without any problem at all, how weird.” Natsu added.  
“We didn’t say anything to you earlier, we were worried you wouldn’t believe us.”  
“We’re telling you the truth, we’ve tried to go back to the temple many times.”  
“But not a single villager has been able to get inside.”  
“I get it.” Erza replied, I nodded along too.  
“I think I do too.” I agreed. Suddenly I felt an extra presence nearby, and I looked behind me, only to see Gray, Lucy, Natsu and Happy there. No one else, strange, but I let it go. Erza started walking and she requipped into her Giant’s Armour.  
“Natsu, come with me.” she ordered, he followed after her. “I’ll need your help to destroy the moon.” Natsu grinned happily, while Lucy, Gray, Happy and I exclaimed.  
“Wait, Erza. You can’t actually destroy the moon! How is that going to help?” I asked hurriedly.  
“Just wait.” she replied with a fierce look in her eyes.


	8. Punishment Awaits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang have finished helping Galuna Island, and are heading home.

“Destroying the moon is the only way we can change the villagers back to normal.” Erza announced, and the villagers cheered happily.   
“Where do you wanna go? Do you think we should climb up to the top of the temple? It’s higher up there.” Natsu suggested.   
“We’ll do it from here. The villagers can’t go near the temple, and they need to witness this.” Erza replied.  
“I don’t know what she’s thinking.” Gray sighed. “She can do some amazing things, but still…”   
“So… what do you think she’s gonna do to it?” Lucy asked.   
“This is exciting, huh?” Happy added.  
“No! Happy, she can’t… she can’t destroy the moon, it’s not possible.” I told him. The two climbed up to the huge watching platform for the guards, Erza requipped a large spear that comes with her Giant’s Armour and she aimed it for the purple moon. Natsu was behind her, and when she told him so, he lit his fist on fire and helped boost her throw. It was flying through the air to the moon.  
“This is bad…” Gray groaned. The spear hit the moon, and it began cracking.  
“We’re doomed.” I sighed, but then the cracks went past the line of the moon. “Wait a second… there’s a barrier?” the barrier, or whatever it was, cracked, but the moon that was left behind was no longer a shining purple. The villagers started glowing, but they weren’t changing at all.   
“What’s wrong, they’re not transforming?” Gray asked.   
“That’s because they don’t need to, they were already demons.” I explained, fully understanding the situation. I had figured out that they were originally demons, but I didn’t think the moon was being covered like Erza realised.  
“It just altered their memories.” Erza explained, stepping towards us.  
“What do you mean?” Lucy asked.  
“They think they’re humans transformed into demons, but it’s the other way around.” Erza explained.   
“Ah! So you’re saying, they’re really…?” Lucy asked.   
“Yep, you got it.” Lucy squealed as I confirmed her question.   
“They’ve always been demons.” Erza smiled.  
“Is that true?” Gray shouted at one of them.  
“Well… maybe? My memory is hazy, we all looked pretty human when you met us didn’t we?” he asked.  
“Yes, because you possess the ability to take on human forms. Your false memories led you to believe that your temporary states were your true forms. In reality you were demons who had fallen victim to the Moon Drip side effects.”  
“Hold on, how come Lyon and the others weren’t affected?” Lucy asked.  
“I assume it’s because they’re human. As far as I can tell, demons were the only ones susceptible to the memory loss. I knew what was going on as soon as the villagers had told me they were unable to go to the temple. The moonlight collected there was sacred therefore, creatures of darkness couldn’t go near it.”   
“You’re quite the detective, I knew I could trust you and your friends.” spoke a new voice. Behind us walked up a new demon. Lucy squealed and even Gray let out a shocked gasp. “Thanks wizards, I owe you one.”  
“Ghost!” Lucy shrieked.  
“You’re the guy from the boat.” Gray accused.   
“Bobo…” Moka choked out.   
“But I thought you…”   
“Getting stabbed in the chest hurt pretty bad… but you gotta do more than that to kill a demon.” he laughed.  
“Is this the ‘ghost’ who brought you here?” I asked Gray. He nodded. “Some ghost, you guys are babies.” I laughed.  
“But he just disappeared into thin air.” Gray argued, but then the guy was in the air with huge wings on his back.  
“I really hope you kids can forgive me for not telling you sooner. I was the only one who didn’t have any memory loss. I had to leave because everyone went nuts. I knew I was a demon, but everybody else… suddenly they thought they were cursed humans.” he grinned. Moka pulled his wings out, and flew up to Bobo and hugged him tight. “I’m so glad you finally snapped out of it, pops!” all the other demons were up in the air too, flying around much happier than before.  
“Definitely demons.” Erza stated.  
“I don’t know… if you look at their faces, they kinda look…” Natsu paused. “More like angels to me.”  
“Let’s have a feast!” Moka shouted in the air. “It’ll be an all-out demon party!”  
“I don’t know if I’m rowdy enough to party with demons.” Lucy chuckled. 

There were tables of food in the centre of the village, and I was sitting at the table with Lucy and Erza, Natsu was opposite us and Gray was on the ground by himself.  
“You might wanna keep Gray on a leash Kairi, every girl in this village has the hots for him.” Natsu looked over to him. I followed his gaze and the village girls were crowding him.  
“It’s not like he’ll do anything.” I replied.  
“Look like he’s getting a lot of attention from them.” Lucy commented, as they dragged him to dance. I shrugged.  
“Well I’m not dancing with him, so I don’t mind.”   
“I’m afraid I have to admit I was wrong about humans.” Moka spoke, coming up to our table. “All of these years we’ve chosen to hide from the outside world. We were so afraid that others would judge us for our appearance.”   
“The curse? That was just a rumour we spread around.” Bobo explained. “So people wouldn’t come to the island and bother us.”  
“Well, it worked because the sailors at the dock wouldn’t take us, they were terrified.” Lucy replied.  
“I know, and it’s a shame. After meeting you, we’ve changed our minds. You’ve restored our faith in humans, and now we’re not afraid. We’re ready to go out and befriend people from other lands.”  
“That’s good, friendship is a beautiful thing.” Erza smiled. “It’s an emotional bond that transcends physical appearance.” we all looked at her and smiled, nodding along. 

Everyone was chatting loudly, but it quickly died down when two people stepped into the camp. Sherry and Yuka.  
“It’s the Cold Emperor’s minions.” I stood up, followed by Erza. Natsu stopped chomping on his fire feast, and Gray pulled away from the girls. Lucy stayed seated.   
“How can we help you?” Erza asked.  
“You Fairy Tailer’s are tough, the Cold Emperor’s so banged up he couldn’t even make it down here.” Yuka started.  
“That’s why we’ve come to pay you a visit in his place.” Sherry added.   
“Wait a second, I thought we were cool, didn’t Lyon tell you what happened?” Lucy asked standing up.   
“Yes, but that doesn’t matter to us.” Yuka replied.   
“We wanted to settle things with you ourselves.”   
“Alright, why don’t you show me what you’ve got?” Natsu grinned.   
“Wait Natsu, we’ve got this.” Bobo interrupted. “We can’t keep relying on you guys.”   
“Normally I would agree with you, but I think it’s best if I handle this one.” Erza replied, stepping forward. Erza ran forward, but Lucy and Natsu told her to just use her brute strength, and she did, knocking them both down. The two stood back up and admitted an easy defeat.   
“We doubt this is going to make up for all the trouble we caused, but we wanted to apologise in person.” Yuka lowered his head.   
“So you wanted to apologise in a good way.” Happy concluded.  
“Nice one Erza, they just wanted to apologise.”  
“The Cold Emperor told us everything. Thanks toy you, we can finally let go of the pain Deliora caused us so many years ago.” Sherry explained.  
“You mean, you were victims of Deliora too?” Gray asked.  
“When we were children, the monster ravaged our village. We watched it murder all of our friends and family.”  
“The Cold Emperor had a plan to kill the demon once and for all. That’s why we joined him.”  
“You see, we wanted revenge, and we were so focused on getting it, that we never realised we were hurting innocent people.”  
“We were so blinded by our hatred, we ended up acting no better than the demon itself. From now on, we’ll treat other people with respect and love.” Sherry finished.  
“Alrighty then!” Natsu grinned, coming up behind them. He placed his arms around their shoulders. “You guys should stick around and join in on the feast!”  
“But, we were enemies a second ago!”  
“I don’t think it’s a good idea! I’m trying to watch my figure, and-”   
“Enough with the excuses! Live a little, would ya?” 

“Gray! When did you get that scar?” I asked, looking at his forehead. It was already the morning after, and we were ready to head home.  
“Huh? Oh, this?” he pointed at the straight line on the left side of his forehead.   
“Yes, that.” I replied.  
“When we saw Lyon the first time.” he explained.  
“You didn’t say anything about it.” I reprimanded.  
“You didn’t say anything about your arm being frozen…” he retaliated.  
“Well, I was going to tell you. I mean I would’ve needed someone to fix it, and you seem like you could fix it.”   
“You can’t fix my scars, besides I kind of like it.” he replied.  
“On your face?” Lucy asked, peering at it.  
“It’s fine.” he replied.  
“Oh! Kairi, did Gray mention he was going to use Iced Shell, twice?” Natsu asked.  
“What?” I whipped my sight to Natsu.   
“But I stopped him.” Natsu grinned.  
“You were going to what?” I looked back to Gray, who was glaring daggers at Natsu. “Ice Shell! Just like Ur, no way! You do that and I’ll bring you back just to kill you myself!”  
“I’ll kill you flame-brain.” he grunted.  
“Oh yeah? Come at me pervy popsicle.” Natsu grinned.   
“You are never hearing the end of this Gray.” I told him, Gray looked to me and smiled sheepishly. 

Later that day, as we were getting ready to leave, Moka came over to us.  
“Here’s the reward money.” Moka was about to hand it over to Lucy, when Erza stopped him.  
“We don’t need it.”   
“What?” Lucy shrieked.  
“Miss, you deserve the reward so take it, please.” he insisted.  
“Thank you, but your gratitude is payment enough.” Erza smiled.  
“That’s nice, but you should take the money.”   
“I can’t, because your request was never officially accepted by the guild, it fell into the hands of foolish wizards trying to prove themselves.” she replied. I knew this was going to happen, even if Erza wasn’t here, I wouldn’t have been able to take the money anyway.   
“What if I give you the money not as a reward but instead as a thank you gift, it’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for our village.” Moka suggested, the boys and Lucy all thought Erza would take it.   
“I’m sorry, accepting your reward would break our guild’s principles… however we’d be happy to take the Celestial Gate Key you offered along with it.”  
“The Key!” Gray and Natsu shouted angrily.  
“Come to Mama!” Lucy squealed.  
“Come on guys, we don’t need the money, but having that key will make Lucy stronger.” I explained. 

Our mode of transportation back to Hargeon was… a pirate ship? Erza made some strange friends on the way here. Lucy was saying she didn’t wanna get on, and Natsu suggested swimming, and I knew why, his motion sickness that he knew he would get was making him hesitant to get on. I almost considering accepting, I’d rather swim all the way back than get on a boat with pirates. We said goodbye to the villagers, and waved goodbye to them as we sailed away. It would take us a whole day to get to Hargeon and then back to Magnolia on the train.  
“Hey Lucy, which key did you get from Galuna Island?” I asked, coming up to her.  
“It’s Sagittarius, the Centaur.”  
“It’s a horseman?” Gray asked. I could just tell he was thinking of a man that looked completely like a horse.   
“Yeah…” I think Lucy could tell he probably wasn’t thinking of a real centaur.   
“You three are so carefree, have you forgotten you’ll face punishment when we get back to the guild.” Erza stated.   
“Erza… just so you know. I can’t get in trouble for going on this quest, so don’t even try, but I had no choice, I was forced to come! They forced me!” I told her.  
“We did not.” Gray replied.  
“You did so, you used evil magic on me!”  
“I hugged you.”  
“E-Exactly.” I finished, crossing my arms over my chest in defiance.  
“Stealing an S-Class Quest is a serious offence.” Erza replied.  
“We said we’re sorry.” Lucy muttered.  
“If you promise to never do it again, then I don’t think you’ll need to be penalised by the guild, but unfortunately I don’t have any say in the matter, your fate is in Master Makarov’s hands, I’m sure you’ll be facing punishment.”   
“Do we really have to?” Happy cried.   
“Just kill me now!” Gray shouted, just freaking out a little. “I don’t think I can live through that again!” I’d never had Gramps’ punishment before, but I knew what it was, and you didn’t want to know. Natsu reassured Lucy, who was curiously freaking out about it. He told her, he’d get them out of it, but Erza said he wouldn’t get out of it. That made Natsu do the same thing as Gray, equally freaking Lucy out some more.  
“Come on guys, we better get back to the guild.” I grinned.  
“She forced us to come along!” Natsu accused, pointing at me.  
“Idiot.” I insulted. “No one’s going to believe that.”

“Is Master Makarov here?” Erza asked immediately after stepping into the guild hall.   
“You’re finally back from your island getaway.” Mira smiled, stepping up to us. “So how was it? Did you have fun?”  
“It was work, not a vacation.” Erza replied.   
“Mirajane, I wouldn’t joke with her right now.” Lucy trembled.   
“Where’s Gramps?” I asked.   
“He went out of town for some last minute council meeting… or something like that, he’s been gone since yesterday.” Macao replied, he was leaning up against the bar with Wakaba. The others let out sighs of relief.   
“Well that was a close one.” Natsu grinned.  
“Yes!” Gray pumped his hand in the air. “We won’t have to deal with that, until Gramps comes back.”  
“Oh, thank goodness.” Happy was crying tears of joy.   
“I can’t stand it anymore, you guys are freaking me out!” Lucy screamed. “How’s he gonna punish us? I can’t die young!”  
“Shut up!” Erza shouted at the group, but turned her attention on Mira again. “Do you know when the Master is planning to return?”   
“No… but I imagine he would be coming back anytime now.” Mirajane replied.   
“Then listen up, you fools. You’re not getting off the hook. You broke guild rules by taking on that S-Class Quest. Prepare to be punished.”  
“Well…” Wakaba grinned. “It was nice knowing you.”


	9. The Dragon’s Egg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a little insight on the past of the gang, on how they once all were.

“Kairi, can you pass that book up to me?” Mirajane asked. I nodded grabbing the book next to me and passing it up to the white blonde on the tall ladder. We were in the guilds library that kept most of the records on Fairy Tail in here. I was helping her place the books back in the right spots. I’d been back from Galuna Island for a week now, the others minus Erza, did get their silly punishment from Gramps, but I didn’t have to worry. Everyone was worried once I’d lost that Communication Lacrima Crystal, and it totally wasn’t my fault. When I made it back to my apartment that day, I had to throw away all my clothes I’d been wearing, they were completely ruined. I’d now taken to wearing a thigh length fuchsia dress with spaghetti straps. Over that was a long sleeved blue opened sweater. My shoes were laced brown combat boots.  
“Hey Mira! Hey Kairi!” it was Lucy, she was standing at the doorway. “What are you guys doing?”  
“Just reorganizing, that’s all.” Mira replied.  
“Oh, I can help with that!” she smiled.  
“Are you sure you want to?”  
“I’m good with boring stuff.” she replied, giving a thumbs up to us. Mira directed her to an extra ladder, to place some books back where they belong.  
“So what were you doing before you came down here?” I asked.  
“I was ‘fishing’ with Natsu.” she started, and then told us all about Natsu and Happy having a fight that ended with Happy declaring their friendship over, and as she asked Natsu if he would follow, he shouted at her and then stormed off apparently. “What a jerk right?” she asked. Mira giggled.  
“Maybe, but that’s what makes him so cute.”  
“You really think so?” Lucy asked, sighing.  
“Of course. You’re attracted to Natsu’s boyish charms too, aren’t you?” Mira asked kindly, with a smile.  
“What?” Lucy shrieked. Next thing we knew, she fell bringing a lot of books back down with her.  
“Are you okay?” I asked.  
“Yeah… sorry about that, I guess ladders aren’t my strong point.” she grinned. She helped herself up, but she found something that fell out of a book. It was a painted picture. I looked over her shoulder, it was from the day Happy was hatched. Reedus had painted the portrait.  
“I remember that.” Mira smiled softly.  
“Is this everyone when they were kids?” Lucy asked.  
“Yep, it’s from six years ago.” I replied. From left to right there was Laxus, Erza, myself, Elfman, Lisanna, Natsu and Happy, Macao, Wakaba, Gramps, Cana, Gray and Mirajane was last.  
“This must be Gray, and who is that next to him…? Cana? Whoa, Macao and Wakaba! They look so young!” Lucy exclaimed before giggling. “Oh, I’d recognise that spiky head anywhere, Natsu hasn’t changed a bit, and… what’s with the little blue dragon?” she asked.  
“That’s Happy.” Mira replied.  
“I don’t know if you know this, but how did Natsu and Happy first meet anyway?” she asked.  
“Let’s see… when that picture was painted, I hadn’t been a member of Fairy Tail for very long… but time sure has flown by. Back then, Natsu and Gray were little balls of hate.” Mira chuckled. “They’d fight every time they ran into each other.”  
“Doesn’t sound like much has changed then?” Lucy laughed.  
“Not really, not between them.” I added.  
“Of course there was also someone to break them up.”  
“Let me guess Erza?” Mira nodded her confirmation.  
“Natsu was always getting into fights like that, of course he acted like that’s what he wanted, but sometimes I’d catch him with a sad look on his face. Then one day… Natsu brought an egg the size of his body into the guild hall. He asked Makarov to hatch it up, but he refused saying it would go against the beautiful way of life.” Mira explained.  
“Natsu was certain it was a dragon’s egg, due to its strange markings, which is why he kept it. Gray told him he should fry it, and Erza suggested that it would be nice to hatch it, instead of destroying things all the time, and then Mirajane challenged Erza to another fight.” I continued.  
“What? Are you for real?” Lucy looked back down to the photo. “Is that you?” Lucy pointed to the eldest Strauss sibling in the photo. Mira was wearing a crop top, with short shorts, exposing much of her legs and stomach in the photo. Complete opposite of how she was now when she’s not doing photo-shoots.  
“Yep.” Mira smiled. “Surprised?”  
“Yeah, this doesn’t look like you at all… and you said she was picking a fight with Erza?” we both nodded. The two often fought just like Natsu and Gray did a long time ago. Natsu and Gray always thought it was unfair, they were never allowed to fight.

_“Oh sure… she’s all mad when we get in a fight, but she can wreck the whole guild whenever she wants?” Gray asked._   
_“Just wait… one of these days I’m gonna give them a beat down they’re never gonna forget.” Natsu glared, cracking his knuckles._   
_“You shouldn’t really fight with Erza, she’ll win.” I told the two older boys as I watched Erza and Mirajane fight._   
_“You know Natsu, keep up that tough guy act and you’ll never get the girls to like you.” teased a girl._   
_“Shut up Lisanna, what do you know?” Lisanna, the youngest Strauss sibling of the three looked similar to her older siblings with the same white blonde hair and blue eyes like her sister. Lisanna’s hair was short, cut in a straight bob-cut._   
_“Now don’t be mean, I was just about to ask if you needed a hand raising that egg?” she asked Natsu. Natsu grinned._   
_“You wanna help really?” he asked eagerly. She nodded._   
_“I’ve never tried raising a dragon, I bet it’ll be real fun.” she smiled._   
_“I don’t know if fun is the right word.” Gray interjected._   
_“How are we supposed to make it hatch?” Natsu asked._   
_“I think you just warm it up.” Lisanna said thoughtfully._   
_“What? For real? Looks like I’m the right man for the job.” he grinned. Natsu picked it up, and breathed out fire, covering it._   
_“Natsu! You’re going to burn it!” I shouted. Gray pushed the egg out of Natsu’s hands._   
_“Are you stupid?” he asked._   
_“Be careful!” Lisanna shouted, placing the egg upright. “We’re trying to hatch it, not poach it. Sit back, and let my magic handle this. **Take Over: Animal Soul.**” Lisanna transformed into an exotic bird, and sat on top of the egg. Lisanna Strauss of the Strauss siblings could transform into animals while her older brother and sister could take over Beasts and Demons respectively._

“Aw… so that’s really Elfman?” Lucy asked, pointing at the well-dressed young teen, who at the time didn’t care too much for manly stuff. “He was such a cute little guy.”  
“Hmm, he hasn’t changed much.” Mira smiled.  
“That’s not exactly true…” I added, frowning. For a few weeks Lisanna and Natsu spent all their time trying to hatch the egg, we didn’t see them in the guild often at all. Back then, everyone knew that Lisanna was crushing on Natsu.

_Cana was telling my fortune like she did every day when I saw my older brother came downstairs from the second floor. Laxus became an S-Class Wizard this year, and he’s spent most of his time up there away from everyone else. He commented on how unusually quiet the guild hall was._   
_“Natsu’s out.” Macao replied._   
_“Hasn’t he been away for a while?” Laxus asked._   
_“He’s trying to hatch a Dragon’s Egg.” Wakaba added._   
_“Are you kidding me?” Laxus looked bored. “A Dragon’s Egg? Don’t tell me you believe in all that garbage?”_   
_“I don’t know, Natsu said he was raised by a dragon, so why not?” Macao asked._   
_“Yeah, like I buy that.” Laxus scoffed._   
_“Give them a break, they’re kids. Lisanna even made an itty bitty house to protect them.” Wakaba laughed._   
_“That’s lame.” Laxus sighed and walked away from the duo. I watched him walk straight past and out the door without even a second look, but my attention was brought back on Macao and Wakaba as Mira broke their table._   
_“I knew something was wrong when she didn’t stop by the guild.” Mira glared. “So she’s been hanging out with Natsu has she?” Mira asked. “She can’t be friends with someone from Team Erza!” Mira shouted. I laughed slightly, Mira was funny when she’s mad._

_The next morning Natsu and Lisanna stormed the guild hall asking each and every one of us, who stole the egg._   
_“We don’t want your dumb egg.” Gray glared._   
_“I don’t know anything about it.” Cana shrugged._   
_“I haven’t seen it since you last brought it in.” I explained._   
_“Laxus, was it you?” Natsu shouted, rushing up to him._   
_“Yeah right.” he scoffed._   
_“Okay Erza, out with it already.” the boy was running up to everyone he saw, accusing them._   
_“Now, now let’s not jump to conclusions, it wasn’t me.” she replied. Lisanna asked Mira, who blamed Natsu for eating it. Natsu swung at Mira, causing another fight in the guild hall._   
_“Why are you so mean? I just want my egg back.” Natsu said with tears in his eyes._   
_“Aw, look at you crying, how cute.” Mira teased._   
_“I’m not crying!”_   
_“You have to stop teasing him about it.” Erza scolded. “Now, would you please stop crying?”_   
_“I’ll make you cry!”_   
_“You know, Elfman told me how jealous he was of your egg the other day.” Cana inputted._   
_“He’s the one who ate it?” Natsu glared._   
_“No! He wouldn’t do that.” Lisanna said softly. Just as we were talking about him Elfman walked up with a sheepish look, as he held the egg._   
_“Sorry guys…”_   
_“So it was you!” Natsu accused._   
_“I didn’t mean to steal it or anything, it’s just you toss and turn so much in your sleep, I was afraid you wouldn’t keep the egg warm enough.” he smiled._   
_“So it’s okay?” Lisanna asked._   
_“I’m not very good with magic, but I stuck close to it all night and kept it warm with my body heat.” Elfman explained._   
_“Thank you.” Lisanna smiled as Elfman handed the egg over to Natsu._   
_“Thanks a lot, you sure are a real man!” Natsu grinned. The egg started wobbling and then the top cracked, we all crowded around it._   
_“It’s hatching!” Lisanna announced. It broke and something shot out of it. A tiny blue cat with even smaller white wings._   
_“It’s a freaking cat!” Macao exclaimed. It slowly flapped its wings and meowed, its wings weren’t very strong and it landed straight onto Natsu’s head. Everyone was eager to get a good look, the little baby was absolutely the cutest thing. Natsu and Lisanna named the cat Happy._   
_“Happy! Happy the Dragon!” Natsu cheered laughing._   
_“It’s not a dragon.” Mira scolded. In the corner of the room, a slim painter told himself, he’d paint Happy as a dragon anyway._

“I see… that was a totally cute story.” Lucy smiled, looking back down at the picture. “I really hate to see those two fighting.”  
“The closer you are, the more you’ll fight. It’s fine.” Mira smiled.  
“Hey Mira.” Gramps came into the library. “Think you can come help me for a sec?” he asked. Mira followed after him, and they left.  
“So… there’s Erza, Gray, you, Mirajane and Laxus.” Lucy was pointing at them as she said the names. “So this girl must be Lisanna?” she pointed at the young Strauss. “If she’s Mira and Elfman’s sister… how come I haven’t met her yet?”

_“Kairi! Have you seen Natsu?” she asked, with a big smile. I looked at the teenage body of Lisanna, we had both grown up since Happy was born, looking more like women, and less like children._  
_“I think he said he was going fishing with Happy, but that was hours ago, they might’ve stopped by now.” I explained, cleaning the bar of the guild._  
_“Thanks Kairi, I’ll see you when we get back.” she smiled, waving as she walked away. The three siblings were going on a quest, and it could be a while before they come back._  
_“Bye Lisanna!” I smiled after her._  
Little had I known, that’d be the last I’d ever see of her again.

“She passed away, Lucy.” I replied.  
“Oh, I’m sorry.”  
“Nah it’s okay, just don’t talk about her to Natsu.” I smiled at her, letting her know it was fine, Lucy smiled back.  
“You know, it’s been a while, I wonder if Natsu and Happy have made up with each other yet?” Lucy questioned.  
“Well, there’s only one way to find out, go check on them.” I told her. Lucy smiled and stood up, raring to leave. Lucy placed the picture back on the ground. I looked at the picture, smiling as I remembered all the times with Lisanna in the guild.


	10. The Guild's Been Destroyed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning moements of Phantom Lord's arc. The Fairy Tail Guild has been destryoed.

The sun was high in the sky as the team and I came back from our very easy quest. We were walking through the streets of Magnolia, and our destination was the guild hall, Natsu placed his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner.  
“Was that an awesome job or what?” he laughed.  
“Well the client sure seemed to think so.” Happy grinned flying up above us.  
“Face it, you guys are just lucky that I actually decided to come along.” Gray sighed.  
“We’re lucky that you begged to come with us?!” Natsu replied. “How do you figure?”  
“Because you were about as helpful as one of Erza’s suitcases.” Gray insulted, causing the two to glare at each other, stopping the continuous flow of our walking.  
“You better watch your mouth or I’ll pack you like a suitcase pal!” Natsu glared.  
“That doesn’t make any sense!” Gray replied. Lucy and I nodded in agreement, it really didn’t make any sense.  
“That’s enough!” Erza exclaimed, pushing the two away from each other, and stepped between them. “Now please get dressed.” she asked Gray.  
“For crying out loud!” he groaned, looking down.  
“A piece of advice Gray.” Happy started. “Never get in a fight in your underwear.”  
“You know… sorry to interrupt…” Lucy nervously started speaking. The three who were completely preoccupied within themselves all looked to her, as did I.  
“What’s up?” Natsu asked.  
“When I took this job, I was originally thinking it would be more of a solo mission, you know… so why did you all have to come along?” she asked.  
“Good question, why exactly was I forcefully dragged along too?” I questioned.  
“Come on, isn’t it obvious?” Natsu questioned.  
“No, I don’t think so.” Lucy replied, I nodded along with her.  
“We’re Fairy Tail’s strongest team, so we gotta stick together.” he grinned.  
“Aye sir!” Happy smiled.  
“And don’t you forget it.” Gray added. Lucy and I looked to each other, Lucy placed her arm around my shoulder and huddled me close.  
“Yeah, we are!” she grinned.  
“No job is too tough, not for me, Happy, Erza, Kairi and ol’ droopy eyes here!” Natsu smiled.  
“Don’t call me that.” Gray replied.  
“We are a capable bunch.” Erza added.  
“Natsu, you forgot Lucy.” I giggled, watching her face grow angry.  
“Haha, oh lighten up, I’m just messing with you Loopy.” he grinned, as we continued our walk to the guild hall.  
“Well, I don’t appreciate it, and that’s not my name!” she scolded.  
“Please forgive me…” Erza stated, holding her hand up in a fist. “I truly didn’t mean to upset you, I let myself get carried away. It will not happen again, if you would like, you may strike me now.” Erza offered, which Lucy profusely refused.  
“Smart move.” Natsu and Gray commented. Agreed, hitting Erza was like tempting death to take you before it was your time. We continued down one of the main streets of Magnolia, when all the townspeople stopped what they were doing, to look and talk about us.  
“Why is everybody staring at us?” Gray asked.  
“It’s not the good kind of staring…” Happy added.  
“They’re whispering about something right?” I asked, unable to hear the words.  
“Feels like pity.” Erza replied before she gasped. “Look!” Erza pointed up ahead, in the direction of Fairy Tail. We all turned our gazes from the townspeople to in front of us. The tall building of Fairy Tail has been destroyed by large iron metal rods, there was over ten rods, maybe even twenty protruding from the place.  
“What the hell happened?” I asked.  
“No way…” Gray muttered.  
“I don’t understand.” Lucy whispered out. Erza dropped the handle to her luggage cart, and we all ran the rest of the way.

Up close, it looked worse. There was no way whoever did this was going to get away with it.  
“O-Our guild! Someone did this to our guild!” Natsu was seething.  
“But who would do such a thing?” Erza asked.  
“Whoever did it, will pay.” I replied.  
“It was Phantom Lord.” Mira spoke from behind, all of us but Natsu turned to look at her.  
“Are you serious?” Gray asked.  
“So it was them…?” Natsu growled, finally turning around.  
“We couldn’t do anything to stop them, they got us good. You should follow me to where we’ve been staying, Master and the others are in the basement.” Mira explained, leading us through the destroyed building so we could reach underground. We walked downstairs and everyone was down here, sorrowfully doing nothing. Mira led us to where Gramps was sitting, sitting with a beer mug in his hands, but from the stench of his breath, it was obvious he’d had more than one today already.  
“Yo, what’s up… kids?” he asked stupidly.  
“Uh… hi?” Lucy greeted.  
“Sorry we weren’t here sooner.” Erza apologised.  
“Why the heck are you all just sitting around down here?” Natsu asked angrily.  
“We should be getting ready to fight back!” I added.  
“How did it go Lucy? You finish the job like a good girl?” Gramps ignored us.  
“Yeah… I guess so?” she replied.  
“Master… do you understand the gravity of the situation?” Erza asked.  
“The guild hall has been completely destroyed!”  
“There’s no need to get yourselves all worked up.” Gramps drunkenly replied. “It’s not the end of the world, or anything.” he shrugged, taking a sip of his beer.  
“What?” Gray asked.  
“It just goes to show you how cowardly those thunderheads in the Phantom Lord Guild really are. They struck when no one was here, is that anything worth bragging about?” Gramps asked.  
“Nobody was here?” Erza questioned.  
“It was after everyone had already left for the night…” Mira explained.  
“It still doesn’t excuse what they did!” I exclaimed.  
“Kairi, we have to be thankful no one got hurt.” Erza looked towards me.  
“That’s not the point! We shouldn’t have to be thankful, because they shouldn’t have done it, but they did, and they deserve payback!” I shouted.  
“Don’t trouble yourselves worrying about people who don’t have the guts to face us head on, forget about those fools!” Gramps stated. Natsu hit a foundation pole behind us in anger.  
“Ain’t gonna happen Gramps!” he shouted. “We can’t just let them trash our place and let them get away with it!”  
“I’m not talking about this anymore.” Gramps replied. “We’ll handle job requests down here until the upstairs is repaired.”  
“We shouldn’t be worrying about job requests!” Natsu shouted.  
“We should be fighting back!” I added.  
“Natsu! Kairi! That’s enough out of both of you!” Gramps shouted, enlarging his hand to hit someone, but that someone happened to be Lucy’s butt.  
“You spanked me because…?” she asked.  
“Hands to yourself Master.” Mira scolded. Gramps laughed, and then stood up and ran between our group.  
“Where are you going?” Natsu shouted.  
“Keep your dress on, I gotta take a leak.” he replied. I sighed, why did I have to be biologically related to that old man.  
“I don’t understand why he’s being like this?” Natsu asked.  
“Listen… this is just as hard on him, as it is on you.” Mira interjected. “He’s mad, but conflict between the guilds is strictly forbidden by the council.”  
“It’s not fair, those Phantom Lord creeps started it!” Natsu argued.  
“I know, but that doesn’t matter.”  
“If the Master’s decision is to not retaliate, then we must respect it.” Erza stated. I crossed my arms over my chest in a huff.  
“That’s total bullsh…” I trailed off when Erza glared at me.

We stuck around for a bit, but I felt it was way too depressing. I decided to head back to my apartment, but I was stopped when Gray told me that the team should stick together at night.  
“What? Why?” I asked him.  
“We don’t know what Phantom Lord wants, Mira said they could know where everyone lives, especially the girls in Fairy Hills, grab some stuff and we’ll head to mine.”  
“Your house is too cold.” I replied. “What about… actually Natsu’s is too small.” I sighed.  
“Lucy’s?” I frowned.  
“Do you go into Lucy’s house often?” I asked.  
“No.”  
“You broke into it the other day.”  
“We thought she wasn’t home.”  
“Exactly.”  
“Just come on.” he grabbed my left hand, but I still couldn’t feel anything. Nothing, not his cold temperature, the pressure of his hand holding mine, there was no feeling at all. “You alright?” he asked. I nodded, and smiled.  
“Just thinking, don’t worry.” when we reached Lucy’s door, I made him knock first and it soon opened. Except the person that opened it was Erza, not Lucy.  
“I was hoping you were Lucy.” she greeted.  
“Why would Lucy knock at her own door?” I asked. “Wait, Lucy’s not even here, and you’re here? Do all of you break into Lucy’s apartment?”  
“I didn’t break in, Natsu let me in.”  
“So Natsu broke in?” I looked to the Dragon Slayer.  
“We came in through the window.” Happy answered.  
“Can we eat? I’m starving.” Natsu complained, oblivious to Gray and I’s presence.  
“I bought some food along the way.” Erza replied, setting up Lucy’s small dining table.

When Lucy came back to her apartment, we were all sitting around her table.  
“Why are you here?” she asked, exasperated.  
“Since the guild’s been attacked, we can assume there are Phantom Lord Members in town.” Erza started.  
“They probably found out where everyone in Fairy Tail lives by now.” Lucy shuddered slightly. “Mira said it would be safer if we holed up together, you know strength in numbers.” Gray explained.  
“I guess she’s right.” Lucy replied.  
“That’s why everyone in Fairy Tail is having a slumber party tonight.” Happy smiled.  
“So… why are we here?” Lucy asked.  
“No boys allowed in our apartments.” I replied, Fairy Hills was specifically for girls only.  
“Hey, you sure have a lot of clothes.” Happy muttered, rummaging through her drawers.  
“What are you doing? Get out of my stuff! You better stop what you’re doing right now, or you’re dead meat.” Lucy shouted.  
“Erza! I found some frilly panties you might like!” Happy grinned. Erza took them from the cat and was looking at them.  
“I can’t believe that you’d actually wear something like this Lucy.” Erza said, all wide eyed.  
“I need to get some shut-eye, can you try and keep it down?” Gray walked over to Lucy’s bed taking off his clothes at the same time.  
“You guys are taking this ‘make yourself at home’ thing a little too far…” Lucy complained.  
“We have a serious problem here.” Erza stated, completely serious now. “You boys’ hygiene, I refuse to sleep in a room that reeks of sweat.” Erza ordered.  
“I don’t wanna take a bath right now.” Natsu complained.  
“But I already got into bed.” Gray added, in the same lazy tone.  
“Come on boys, do we have to take a bath together like we did when we were kids?” Erza asked. I laughed seeing their terrified faces at the thought of it.

“Okay Natsu, you’re up. I’m all done with my bath.” Lucy announced, walking out of the bathroom. Natsu was dead asleep, with his face lying on the table. “Wanna take a spot Gray?” she asked instead. He grunted at her, too busy reading something he found on Lucy’s desk. Erza was sitting on Lucy’s bed with her hair and body just covered by two simple pink fluffy towels. I washed a bit before Erza, but I didn’t spend as long in a towel as she had, I got dressed completely before coming back out of the bathroom. Erza, using her Requip Magic, she easily changed into her pyjamas for the night.  
“Is that really how you change your clothes?” Lucy asked. “Do any of you have any idea why Phantom Lord attacked us out of the blue like that?” Lucy asked, sitting down next to the sleeping Natsu.  
“I’m afraid not, we have had our fair share of scuffles with them in the past, but never anything on this sort of magnitude before.” Erza explained.  
“If Gramps wasn’t so scared of them, we could wipe out those punks once and for all.” Natsu said, raising his head up.  
“Since when were you awake?” Lucy asked.  
“Kairi, you should knock some sense into him.”  
“Why me?”  
“You’re his favourite grandkid.”  
“What?” Lucy exclaimed. “You’re related to Makarov?”  
“Yeah…?” I asked. “By the way, you can’t pick favourite grandkids.”  
“You never told me! All of you call him Gramps, but only two of you are related to him?”  
“That’s correct.” I nodded.  
“Hey, Natsu, you know Master isn’t afraid of them.” Gray added. “You’re forgetting he’s one of the Ten Wizard Saints!”  
“What?” Lucy exclaimed again, finally noticing that Gray was reading something. “Hey! I never gave you permission to read that.” Lucy snatched the papers away from Gray.  
“You can’t snatch it out of my hands without at least telling me what happens next?” he held his hand back out.  
“Yes. I can. I promised Levy she’d be the first to read it, so you’re just gonna have to wait.” she replied. Erza held her hand out too. “You’re not getting it either! So… what’s the Ten Wizard Saints anyway?” she directed the conversation back to the topic at hand.  
“It’s an honour bestowed by the Magic Council.” Erza replied. “An extremely coveted title shared by the Ten Most Powerful Wizards on the continent.”  
“Really?” Lucy asked.  
“Phantom Lord’s Master Jose is one of them.” Happy explained.  
“He is afraid!” Natsu shouted. “He’s scared that Phantom Lord has too many members for us to handle.”  
“Could you please use your inside voice?” Lucy begged.  
“That is not true, and you know it.” Gray replied. “It’s just like Master and Mira said, the consequences of us going to war with Phantom Lord are nowhere near worth the fight. The order of the magical world is at stake here.”  
“But I don’t understand why?” Lucy asked. “Are they that strong?”  
“They ain’t got nothing on us. We could take those clowns.”  
“No, if we were to engage them in battle, neither guild would survive. Their strength equals ours. Phantom Lord’s Master Jose is also one of the Ten Wizard Saints, which means he’s on par with Gramps. They also have an elite group of wizards similar to our S-Class known as the Element Four.”  
“And then there’s the biggest threat, Black Steel Gajeel.” I added.  
“He’s the one most likely behind the guild halls destruction.” Erza continued. “He’s known as the Iron Dragon Slayer.”  
“He’s a Dragon Slayer too?” Lucy shrieked. “I thought Natsu was the only one… so if he’s the Iron Dragon Slayer, does that mean he eats iron?” I nodded in confirmation.  
“Dragon Slayers eat the element they control.”

We soon arranged a good sleeping pattern, and all quickly and safely fell asleep. I was the first one up the next morning, I left them a note saying I was heading to Fairy Hills for a while, but I never made it there, in Magnolia’s Southgate Park, on the biggest tree there were three people, stuck there, more importantly, people were surrounding them and no one was helping them. Instantly I could feel something wrong was happening, I pushed through the crowd to come face-to-face with Shadow Gear. They were being held up by iron braces. They’d taken a serious beating, and the only clue as to who it was, was the huge Phantom Lord Guild Mark painted on Levy’s stomach. No one from Fairy Tail was there, just townspeople.  
“Hey! You! Go get Fairy Tail’s Guild Master!” I ordered. They nodded and ran off, and soon I heard Erza’s loud voice.  
“Excuse us, we’re from their guild. Please, let us through.” the four and Happy came up to where I was. Lucy gasped covering her mouth, Erza and Gray jolted in shock, but Natsu was glaring at the tree.  
“Levy!” Lucy called out.  
“Phantom Lord did this!” Natsu growled.  
“This time, they’re gonna pay!” I shouted. Behind us, Gramps walked up to the tree.  
“Master…” Erza started.  
“I can take our headquarters being reduced to rubble… but I will not let harm come to my children without taking revenge!” Gramps started glowing in anger. “We’ve no choice but to go to war!”

Lucy took Shadow Gear to the hospital, but the rest of us, we didn’t wait another second. The guild members got on the next train to Oak Town, which was located in the North-East corner of Fiore. Phantom Lord’s Guild towered over most of the city, luckily it wasn’t hard to find. Natsu charged for the guild the second we got off the train, I followed straight after him. The two of us were in front with the rest of Fairy Tail behind us.  
“Ready?” Natsu looked back at me.  
“Ready!” I shouted.  
“**Fire Dragon’s Iron Fist!**” he aimed for the guild’s front door, breaking it down. Smoke from the flames surrounded us, clouding our appearances but it soon disappeared, showing Fairy Tail right at Phantom Lord’s door.  
“Fairy Tail has come calling!” Gramps shouted. Phantom Lord looked briefly confused but charged at us, as we charged at them.  
“**Water Slicer!**” I shouted, knocking back any and all that came towards me. The water cut and hurt only a few of them. “**Water Cyclone Beam!**” I aimed in a different direction, knocking those down at the same time that Natsu hit some with his flames. “**Water Cage!**” that locked some of the Phantom Lord’s Members inside, and Gray froze it, making it impossible for them to get out of it.  
“Tell me where I can find Black Steel Gajeel and the Element Four!” Erza shouted loudly. Members of Phantom Lord tried hitting me with their own magic, but they completely went through my body, making them useless. “**Water Wave!**” I created a wave behind a group of Phantom Lord Members and it came crushing down on them. Gramps managed to work his way through Phantom Lord and got to the top floor, making his chances at finding Jose easier.


	11. Phantom Lord VS Fairy Tail

A Phantom Lord member stepped up to me.  
“You’re just a Water Mage, you can’t beat me.” he smirked cockily.  
“Oh yeah? Fight me then.” I held my left hand up and clenched it into a fist. “_**Water Punch!**_” a jet of pressurised water shot out at him, knocking him back.  
“_**Card Magic: Lightning, Reverse Tower, Lever! Rain of Lightning!**_” Cana shouted, holding her hand which was full of cards.  
“_**Ring Magic: Twister!**_” Loke shouted. Elfman’s arm took the form of a beast. Elfman was unable to perform a full-body Take Over, due to circumstances, so he did body limbs instead. While we were fighting, someone entered the hall, ready to join the fight.  
“Who’s that?”  
“It’s gotta be…”  
“The Iron Dragon Slayer. Black Steel Gajeel.” Nab jumped up behind him.  
“You attacked Levy!” he shouted, throwing a punch to Gajeel’s face.  
“Nab! No!” I exclaimed, watching as the Iron Dragon Slayer turned his arm into a full rod of iron, hitting Nab into his own Phantom Lord Guild members.  
“He just knocked out his own guild mates!”  
“Show me what you’ve got.” Gajeel smirked, his arm returning to normal. He was a tall, young man, who looked very muscular with long spiky black hair that at least reached his lower stomach. His eyes were red with slitted pupils, much like a dragon. Most of his exposed body was littered in sets of simple round studs, along the length of his nose, his chin, in the place of his non-existent eyebrows, and along his forearms. His ears adorned five set of earrings each. His body was covered in scars, and as a member of Phantom Lord, his right shoulder bore the Guild Mark in black. “Unless you scum are too scared to face the Great Iron Dragon Slayer.”  
“Too scared?” Elfman shouted, jumping towards him. “Real men have no fear!” Elfman changed his arm’s beast appearance, but Gajeel blocked it.  
“You’re Elfman, right?” Gajeel asked, aiming for him a few times, but Elfman dodged each one. Elfman grabbed his iron leg, but more rods grew from the first one. Those mostly hit his own Phantom Lord Members.  
“You’d attack your own men?” Elfman asked in shock.  
“I knew it’d distract you!” Gajeel hit Elfman in the face, knocking him back. Natsu ran forward, passing Elfman, and managed to hit Gajeel in the face himself.  
“That kid sent him flying! No one’s ever done that before!”  
“Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Fairy Tail’s Dragon Slayer. Elfman, leave this guy to me.”  
“Come on, you want to steal my man to man fight?”  
“_**Iron Dragon’s Club!**_” Gajeel hit Natsu, which pushed him back, but Natsu held onto Gajeel’s iron hand, not letting go and he started heating it up.  
“You destroyed our guild hall, and you attacked Shadow Gear, I’ll make you pay!” he shouted, Natsu managed to drag Gajeel a bit, and threw him up into the air from his brute strength, Gajeel hit the wall with his feet and bounced back. The two were in close proximity when Natsu threw the first punch, knocking Gajeel back a long way.  
“He’s fired up now.” Wakaba laughed.  
“Yeah, I’d hate to be the other guy.” Macao agreed.  
“Alright fine, you’re manlier than I thought, but you’ve gotta promise me that you’re-” Elfman trailed off.  
“You got it. I’ll beat him to a pulp.” Natsu grinned.  
“Nice try, but I’m still standing.” Gajeel growled.  
“True, but you won’t be for much longer though.”  
“Oh yeah?” Gajeel ran towards Natsu and hit him instead. It also knocked out more Phantom Lord Members. “Aw, what’s the matter, you can dish it out but you can’t take it?” Gajeel taunted, making Natsu help himself back up.  
“It’s gonna take a lot more than that to keep me down.”  
“You seriously think you can beat me, you pyro!”  
“What do you mean think? I know that I can!” the two started shooting for one another.

While the two were fighting, the building started shaking badly.  
“This is what happens when Master Makarov is angry.” Cana gleamed.  
“It’s called the Giant’s Wrath.” Loke added.  
“Prepare to fight, we can’t lose as long as Master Makarov is with us.” Erza ordered. A Phantom Lord Member came up behind me and before I could think, I used my left hand to punch him in the face. I looked at my hand briefly, with the force I just used I should’ve felt my hand connecting to his face, but I didn’t feel it, he certainly did as I heard his jaw break. Another came up, and I did the same. A few began to crowd around me, and I tried punching each person but too many were now crowding me, I stopped fighting as something fell into the middle of the room, screaming from the fall. Whoever it was landed with a thud. As the rubble disappeared from around them, I could see who it was. Everyone stopped fighting to look too.  
“Something fell from the rafters!”  
“Gramps!” I screamed, catching a glimpse of his discoloured face. The group surrounding me grinned and looked to me.  
“Is he okay?”  
“Master!”  
“Guess we win!”  
“Guess again!” I glared. I punched and kicked my way through the stupid barricade of people with a new surge of energy flowing through my body. I ran towards the fallen old man. Many people of Fairy Tail rushed to surround him. I placed my arms around him, and pulled him onto my lap.  
“My power is… my magic power…” he groaned out.  
“Master?” Erza started. “Calm down…”  
“What happened to him?” Cana asked, kneeling next to me.  
“I can’t sense any magic energy coming from him.” Gray replied.  
“Gray, are you saying he’s just an ordinary old man now?” Elfman asked.  
“No! He’s not ordinary!” I screamed.  
“Come on, you can pull through.” Natsu begged.  
“I don’t understand, Gramps is so powerful. How did they do this?” Gray asked.  
“Only way to find out is to go up there.” Elfman suggested. The Phantom Lord Guild were excitable, and gearing up to attack.  
“Kairi?” I heard Erza speak. “This is bad.” Phantom Lord all shouted, running towards us, and some of Fairy Tail started attacking back, but now we were easily losing without the magic power of our Guild Master.  
“Erza, we need to leave now.” I ordered. She nodded in agreement, standing up.  
“We must retreat! Everyone back to the guild at once.” she ordered.  
“Erza?” Loke asked.  
“No way! We can’t just give up!” Gray shouted.  
“Everyone!” I shouted, tears forming in my eyes as I stared down at Gramps. “If we don’t leave now, it’ll be harder for us to carry those who can’t! Leave! That’s an order!” what I said hit hard, and begrudgingly they began to leave. I was one of the last few to leave, but I heard Gajeel talking to one of the Element Four. The one he was talking to, took down Gramps, and they mentioned Lucy. Natsu, who was still very reluctant to leave, heard them speaking too. They said Lucy’s been captured. “They’ve taken Lucy?” I questioned. I felt angry, and the others noticed when I started making water come from within my body. I felt it swirling around me, but something was off about this magic, instead of looking through crystal blue water, it was dark, almost black. I didn’t care though, I was too angry to even think about the change.  
“Kairi!” I heard Gray shout beside me. Water that had shot up into the air, fell around me. “We’re leaving, your orders. You have to follow them too.” he grabbed my hand and pulled me along. “What was with the black water?” he asked, I shrugged.  
“I don’t know?” we continued running away, I looked back seeing Phantom Lord chasing after us too.  
“_**Ice-Make: Wall!**_” Gray created a wall they couldn’t get past. Gray and I were some of the last few people and ahead of us, I couldn’t see Natsu’s pink hair anywhere.  
“Gray!”  
“What?”  
“Natsu’s gone.”  
“That idiot… we’ll have to leave him behind. Natsu’s strong enough to fend for himself. We have wounded to worry about.” Gray replied.

We made it back to Magnolia in terrible shape. Bisca and Alzack took Gramps to see Porlyusica, Gramps’ old friend and doctor. I thought about going, but Porlyusica didn’t like me, well not just me, she didn’t like people. The rest of us came back to the ruined guild hall of Fairy Tail, and we managed to remove and destroy the iron rods that protruded the building. Mirajane who had stayed behind helped bandage all the wounded. Natsu had brought Lucy back, and when I saw her, I immediately went to hug her, asking if she was okay. Dismissively she told me she was, but I knew deep inside she didn’t feel like she was. Over in the corner of the basement, Macao and Wakaba were trying to set up a new plan for a new attack with a few others.  
“Okay, so their headquarters are here.” Macao spoke. “So, I’m thinking we should try and hit them with some long-range spells from this South-East hill.”  
“I’m bringing out all my explosive Lacrimas next time!”  
“Hey guys, we’re gonna need some spell books for Holder-Type Magic from the Archives!”  
“Don’t worry, we’ll get them next time.” Gray told Lucy, as we grouped together in a corner of the basement.  
“I know… I’m not worried about that… it’s just all my fault.” she said softly.  
“No, Lucy. None of this was your fault.”  
“Being targeted by people is one of the downsides of being rich.” Elfman added. Lucy had to come clean about her past, her family was the Heartfilia Family, and one of the richest families in Fiore.  
“Why did you hide the truth from us Lucy?” Happy asked.  
“I wasn’t trying to hide anything, there’s no way to bring up the fact that I’m a runaway in casual conversation… I’ve been gone for a year and my father hasn’t cared. Now all of a sudden, he wants to force me to come home?” she laughed. “He’s done all those horrible things just to get me to come back. I hate his guts! Still… if I hadn’t run away in the first place… none of this would’ve ever happened.”  
“Hey Lucy… don’t beat yourself up about it.”  
“Your dad is the one to blame.” Elfman accused.  
“Idiot!” Gray glared at him.  
“Uh… I mean its Phantom Lord’s fault.” he corrected himself.  
“No… I’m the one who brought trouble to the guild, because of my own selfish choices. I’m so very sorry. I’ll just go back home and hope that this will be over with.” she said quietly, as she went to stand up.  
“Like hell you will.” I told her, pushing her back into her seat softly.  
“You know, I can’t see you going home and playing the part of a perfect princess, Lucy. Going out on adventures, that’s the real you. You said you wanted to stay with us right?” Natsu asked. “Why would you go back to the place you ran away from? Who are you trying to kid? You’re Lucy of Fairy Tail. You belong with us.” he grinned. She shed some tears, and tried wiping them away before we saw, but she failed.  
“I’m sorry!”

Cana was trying to find Mystogan with her cards, she could use her Card Magic to find and contact everyone in Fairy Tail, but she was failing at finding him. Mira was talking to Laxus with a Communication Crystal Lacrima.  
“Help us Laxus?” Mira asked. “We could really use you about now, Fairy Tail is in terrible danger.”  
“Man, Makarov is freaking pathetic.” Laxus laughed.  
“Laxus!” I exclaimed, overhearing them talk, I walked over to Mira and looked into the Lacrima. “You need to help.”  
“I don’t see how this is my problem? You’re big girls, so deal with it!”  
“So you’re not gonna help us?” I asked.  
“Of course not, why would I? That senile old toad started this. Why do I have to be the one to clean up his mess?” he asked.  
“Gramps is sick, brother, we’re asking you to help us fix this mess? Laxus, please they’re trying to kidnap Lucy!”  
“Who? Do I even know her? Oh wait, that’s your blonde friend huh? Tell you what, if you can talk blondie into being my woman, I’ll do anything she wants.” he smirked.  
“You’re such a pig!” Cana shouted overhearing him.  
“Are you sure you wanna talk that way to a guy you’re begging to help?”  
“You need your little sister to get you a girlfriend, can’t get one yourself?” I glared. Laxus glared back at me.  
“Do me a favour, kid, if that geezer manages to pull through this, tell him he’s over the hail, and he should hand the guild over to me!” he laughed, shutting his Lacrima down.  
“I hate your brother, no offence Kairi.” Cana glowered.  
“So do I.” I replied. Beside me I heard Mirajane whimper. “Ah, Mira, don’t let what he said get to you, he’s just a bully.” I told her.  
“I don’t understand, how can someone in Fairy Tail be so heartless and cruel? I can’t just sit here and watch I have to join the others and fight.”  
“Wait, don’t be ridiculous!” Cana objected.  
“I feel totally useless being stuck here at the guild hall… I wanna help.”  
“We understand Mira, but you haven’t been able to Take Over since that day.” I added. “Even if you were once an S-Class Wizard, you’re not able to help.”  
“Hey Kairi, what about that black magic you were using?” Macao asked, interrupting the conversation.  
“Huh?” I looked at him.  
“What was it?”  
“I don’t know… I don’t have anyone to ask, Gramps would be able to tell me… but I can’t ask him.”  
“Felt strong.” Wakaba added. “Stronger than usual.”  
“I felt it too.” Gray added. We kept talking about what it could possibly be, but then the basement building shook. “What’s going on?” Gray asked.  
“Outside!” shouted Alzack from the top of the stairs, both he and Bisca must be back. We all ran up the stairs and out of the guild hall into the streets. Something huge was making its way towards Fairy Tail.  
“What is that thing?” Natsu asked.  
“P-Phantom Lord’s headquarters?” I asked. It was situated on a platform with moving legs. “This won’t be easy.” one of the headquarter building walls began to move down and something was emerging from behind it. A cannon? It started sucking in air, and lots of it.  
“Run! Get out of the way, now!” Erza shouted, who was wearing only a towel, since she was showering moments before this. She ran forward and changed into her Adamantine Armour.  
“Erza!”  
“Don’t be stupid!” Erza’s armor consisted of a singular, blue chest plate with a lighter blue belt-like contraption around the waist. Three spikes lined the top of the chest plate which gives way to a white neck brace split in the center to allow room for her chin. The shoulders were sectioned with a large spike dividing each section, the middle spike being the largest of the three. The gauntlets had only a few sections. Attached to the elbows were two large white shields which gave the armor its defensive power. A blue jewel lined the back of her hand. Attached to the bottom of the chest plate was two layer metallic skirt with small spikes hanging on the ends of each layer. A larger spike hung inward on the bottom layers. Her legs were covered in a sectioned armor to match the rest of the armor with a pair of greaves starting at the knees. The greaves bore a blue design shaped like the large spike that hung off the skirt. Several curving spikes attached just below the knee of the greaves. She wore a large spiked headdress atop her head with a reflective piece in the middle.  
“Is she gonna try and block the cannon’s shot?” Bisca asked. Bisca was a young woman with long, straight green hair that reached down to her lower back, and a set of long bangs framing her face. Bisca's attire mirrored that of a fictional cowgirl, with a country-style hat that she always wore on her head, a light polka-dotted neck scarf, and a pair of reddish brown boots. Her body was covered by a short, strapless one-piece dress decorated by spiraling motifs the colour was a plain blue with darker, striped edges which were plain white.  
“She requipped!”  
“What are you doing?”  
“I’m protecting the guild hall!”  
“There’s no way her armour is going to be strong enough for a blast like that.” Alzack added. Alzack was a young man of average height with long black hair that covered the right part of his face. His eyes were black as well, and the right one was always obscured by his hair. A man from the western country, Alzack's attire mirrored that of fictional cowboys, minus their signature hats. His outfit consisted of a long brown coat resembling a poncho with tasseled edges together with a shirt and torn pants with strips similar to the ones on his coat hanging from their edges – these being held up by a studded belt with a skull-shaped buckle. On his feet he wore simple shoes, or boots. He had a case on his right hip, attached to a belt, in which he usually kept one of his guns, consisting of a large leather belt, seemingly decorated by concentric circles in its widest part.  
“You’re just risking your life! This is ridiculous.”  
“Stay back!” Erza shouted.  
“Erza!” Natsu shouted, he was about to go after her, but Gray and I grabbed onto him.  
“You can’t stop her, so have faith in her.” the cannon fired and it headed straight for Erza. I heard her huge shield start to crack. She managed to deflect the blast completely, but it knocked her back completely in line with us again. Her ruined armour requipped into her regular clothes on its own.  
“I can’t believe it, she managed to stop it…”  
“Erza!” I let go of Natsu and ran towards her, but he followed after me anyway.  
“Are you okay?” he asked as we knelt down. “Say something!”  
“Makarov has fallen, and now Erza can no longer stand.” we heard Jose’s voice coming from inside the headquarters. “Any chance of victory has slipped through your fingers. Surrender Lucy Heartfilia immediately. You have no choice.”  
“That’s not gonna happen!”  
“Like any guild would hand over one of their own to a monster like you!”  
“You hear that! Lucy’s staying put!”  
“Yeah!”  
“I won’t ask again.” Jose spoke.  
“Then leave!” I shouted. “Lucy Heartfilia stays with us!”  
“We would never betray her like that! You’d have to kill us first!” Erza shouted from the ground.  
“You can stop asking now, because we’re not gonna give her up!” Natsu added. “We’re taking every one of you jerks down!”  
“If this is what you want, I’ll give you a second helping of Jupiter! You’ve got fifteen minutes to follow through with your actions!” Jose shouted.  
“They’re gonna fire at us again?” Loke asked.  
“Erza?” Mirajane asked.  
“She’s out, and she’s the only reason the rest of us are standing.” looking back up at the Phantom Lord headquarters, millions of shadows come out of the building, the work of Jose’s Shade Magic.  
“There are only two ways this can play out. Either my troops will tear you apart, or you’ll be blown away by Jupiter.” Jose explained.  
“I’m gonna smash that thing to pieces…” Natsu grinned. “I only got fifteen minutes to wreck it right?” Cana nodded in confirmation. “Come on Happy!” Natsu ran forward and Happy flew after him, once they reached the edge, Happy picked up Natsu by his collar and started flying with him.  
“Let’s go.” Gray looked at me and Elfman. “We’re gonna storm the place too.” we both nodded and ran too. Gray froze the ocean’s water leading up to the headquarters, giving us a flat surface to run on. As we ran across I kept hearing the timer go down.

We weren’t even inside the building when there were only twenty seconds to go until the cannon was to fire again.  
“He’s leaving it to the last minute isn’t he?” Gray questioned as we heard the countdown from five, but the blast never came, so we had to assume Natsu broke it, though shortly after, shaking followed the destruction of the cannon, it made it completely hard to travel up.  
“This thing is in some serious motion, good thing we’re not Dragon Slayers.” Elfman laughed.  
“Oh no… Natsu’s probably sicker than sick.” I thought out loud. We came up to see Natsu lying on the floor looking sick, and Totomaru, Phantom Lord’s Fire Mage of the Element Four aiming a magic circle at him. Totomaru was a young man with long, two-toned hair of black and white that was tied up into an Eastern-styled top knot on the back of his head, with the black portion overlaying the front and left side of his head, leaving the smaller white portion concentrated on the left, with the top knot also having the two separate colours correspondingly. On his face, Totomaru sported a simple marking consisting of three horizontal black bars passing across the ridge of his nose and both cheeks in a linear formation, with the one in the middle being the longest.  
“Time for me to finish you off!” Totomaru shouted.  
“Natsu!” Happy exclaimed, trying to get him up.  
“Prepare to die Dragon Slayer!” he created a small fire but I held my hand out.  
“_**Rain-Fall!**_” a rain cloud came down and started pouring above him, the rain was darker than it had been before, just like before. The rain began dousing out his fire, and then Gray froze the water, and him along with it.  
“You’re not a man, you’re a backwards shooting snowflake!” Elfman knocked him out of the building.  
“Thanks, you guys.” Natsu said, sitting up.  
“You’re so cool!” Happy exclaimed. “You showed that Phantom Lord jerk who’s boss!”  
“What’s the deal, Natsu? That was just sad.” Gray asked.  
“If you were a real man, you’d make the giant motion sick of you.” Elfman added.  
“This is the remains of the Jupiter Cannon?” I asked, looking at pile of rubble.  
“Aye!” Happy replied.  
“You did well.” Gray complimented.  
“Hey, we must’ve stopped moving, because I’m feeling better now.” Natsu commented standing up.  
“I’ll go outside, and see what’s going on.” Happy suggested, flying off of the ground. “We’re doomed!” was the first thing Happy said when he came back. “It’s creating a magic circle for a forbidden spell.”  
“What do we do?” Natsu shouted. “We gotta stop them!”  
“I guess we should split up and start looking for this things power source.” Gray suggested.  
“Man, do we ever get a break?” Elfman sighed.  
“Let’s do this!” Natsu started.  
“Yeah.” we replied, splitting up.

I was running down an empty hallway, I turned around a left corner and realised it was raining in the hallway.  
“Rain, inside? Is that even possible?” I asked myself.  
“Drip, Drip, Drop!” spoke a dull voice. I looked to see a shadowy female figure. A slender, young woman with blue hair, dark blue eyes, pale skin and a curvaceous figure. She had long hair which tightly curled at the base, and she was wearing a navy blue coat, a fur shawl with a teru-teru bōzu attached to it, as well as a Foreign Cossack hat. This must be the Water Mage of Element Four. I stepped into the rain created by this strange woman. I could feel the energy of her magic in her rain. This wouldn’t be easy… water fighting water.  
“_**Water Slicer!**_” I shouted, aiming for her, but she too turned her body into water.  
“Juvia thinks you are weak.” she spoke.  
“Excuse me?” I glared.  
“Juvia knows you’ll lose so give Juvia, Lucy Heartfilia.”  
“Stop talking like that.” I frowned. “And I’ll never hand over Lucy.”  
“That was the wrong decision. _**Water Lock!**_” she created a ball of water and threw it at me. Instead of doing the job it was supposed to, locking me into a water cage, it went straight through me.  
“That was kind of pathetic.” I told her. “Juvia is obviously not very strong.”  
“That’s not right, Juvia can trap even the strongest of Water Mages.”  
“Then I’m stronger than you.”  
“**_Water Cyclone!_**” she shouted, aiming for me, I dodged and she followed after me, hitting the wall of the hallway. It was raining outside too, did she really control the rainy weather? Briefly, just for a spilt second I looked outside at the rain around us, it really did only surround this woman, within that split second Juvia managed to knock me through the wall, sending me outside with a jet of water, completely drenching my clothes at the same time.


	12. Victory is Ours!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fairy Tailhas conquered the fight against Fairy Tail.

“Drip, Drip, Drop. Juvia knew you were weak.” she sighed, walking through the broken wall.  
“Weak? You hit me when I wasn’t looking!” I shouted. Juvia turned around, and walked away from me. “You can’t just walk away from me!” I followed after her, and saw Gray’s head poking out from a window.  
“Drip, Drip Drop.” she repeated. “My name is Juvia and she is the Rain Woman of Element Four.” she explained.  
“He gets an introduction and I get insulted when we just met?” I asked. Gray pulled himself out of the window and stood up straight.  
“She’s one of them?” Gray asked. I nodded, walking quickly past Juvia and next to Gray. “Let’s bring it on.”  
“Juvia must say, she’s impressed your guild was able to take down two of the Elements… however you must not underestimate the remaining two.”  
“Listen lady… if you’re looking for a fight I’ll give you one, but let’s get something straight, I’m not gonna hold back just cause you’re a chick.” Gray glared at her. I saw a blush come up on her cheeks and she turned away.  
“W-Well then, Juvia gives up. You win. Goodbye.” she turned to walk away.  
“What…?” I exclaimed.  
“Where are you going?” Gray shouted. “Come back and fight!” Gray chased after her. “Will you at least tell us how to stop the giant?”  
“_**Water Lock!**_” she held her hand out and captured Gray, which ended up hurting his torso, that was still sore from Galuna Island.  
“H-Hey, you gave up, you can’t re-join!” I shouted.  
“Oh no! What has Juvia done? He’s injured, Juvia had no idea he was hurt! Juvia doesn’t know what to do, Juvia guesses she should release him…” she panicked slightly. Gray froze the water and broke it himself, allowing himself to be free. “He’s an Ice Wizard? It’s beautiful…” she sighed, her eyes going all dreamy like.  
“What’s her problem?” Gray asked, he took his shirt off, giving himself more room to move with his arms.  
“Uh… I have no idea...” I replied confused. I knew it was because she saw his bare chest and freaked out.  
“I don’t want to fight a girl but I will if I have to.” Gray started. “So surrender now, or I’ll have to hurt you. **_Ice-Make: Lance!_**” the ice went straight through her body. “So she does the same thing you do?” he asked. I nodded.  
“If you had asked, I would’ve told you.”  
“It seems this is farewell, my prince.” she spoke softly.  
“Prince?” I questioned.  
“_**Water Slicer!**_” she shouted. I pushed Gray down, and the water hit the wall, cutting through, leaving holes.  
“**_Ice-Make: Battle-Axe!_**” it cut through the middle of Juvia, and it was useless against her.  
“You’re wasting your time, your attacks have nothing against my body made of water. Drip, Drip Drop!”  
“Now what?” Gray asked. I shrugged. “Use your black water on her.”  
“Water is water, it doesn’t matter what colour it is.” I replied.  
“No matter what you do, you can’t win.” she said confidently. “But you can be spared, all we ask is that you hand over Lucy Heartfilia. Do that and Juvia will ask our Master to call off the attack on Fairy Tail.”  
“Ah, come on… don’t give me that crap. We all know that we’re past the point of return, besides Lucy’s one of us… I’d rather give my life than hand her over to you.” she squealed.  
“Oh the pain… how can fate be so cruel, Juvia’s heart feels like it’s been shred to bits. It hurts, oh it hurts!”  
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling sick or something?” Gray asked.  
“Yeah, lovesick.” I muttered, Gray didn’t hear me.  
“What?” he looked down at me.  
“Not a word.” I replied.  
“Lucy Heartfilia cannot be allowed to live!” Juvia shouted. And she shot a jet of water aimed at us both. She missed me, but I could feel the heat from it.  
“That burns! What’s your deal?” Gray shouted. “And what’s your problem with Lucy?” she did it again, and we both managed to dodge, but it kept coming around, and around. Gray almost slipped off, though he managed to save himself.  
“Ever since the day Juvia was born, she was followed by the rain.” Juvia started. “It gives Juvia strength, it makes Juvia invincible.” she aimed for us again. “Prepare to be scolded by my jealous rage!”  
“What do you have to be jealous of?” Gray shouted. I kept dodging while trying to focus all of my magic. I got too focused on the magic, and forgot about Juvia until Gray’s arm wrapped around my waist, as Juvia aimed hot water at us. “_**Ice-Make: Shield!**_” but the hot water was melting it. Below us was a hole into a hallway below us. Using the steam as a smokescreen, we disappeared. “She’s crazy!” Gray shouted.  
“You’ve got that right!” I replied. We were running when Juvia flooded the hallway. It was burning hot water.  
“So hot!” I could talk and breathe underwater easily, being a full body of water. I tried cooling the water, mostly for Gray, whom I heard shout out, even though it risked breathing water in. We swam out of the water and we came back out to where Juvia was.  
“It’s all over now!” she aimed at us.  
“No it’s not! **_Water God’s Bellow!_**” high pressurised water came from my mouth, creating a huge water cyclone as it span towards her, it hit her hard, and she fell to the ground with a scream. Juvia laid on the ground, panting heavily.  
“Juvia wishes to stop fighting.” she started.  
“Finally.” Gray sighed. “Why are you giving up now?”  
“Well it’s just that… Juvia thinks…”  
“Did the rain just get worse?” Gray asked, cutting her off. “This rain is so gloomy.”  
“How could you be so cruel?” she shouted, standing back up.  
“What’d you do?” I screamed. She trapped Gray in more water, and he couldn’t freeze it, for whatever reason. I opened my mouth, breathing in, and all the water flowed into my mouth, just like it would for a Dragon Slayer if they used water, but I’m not a Dragon Slayer, I couldn’t be, Dragon Slayers were taught by Dragons. All her water was gone, so Gray attacked Juvia. She ended up in the air from impact, and she was about to fall off the side of the building. Gray and I looked to each other. We ran to the side and slid down the slanted roof. We both reached out, but Gray’s arm was longer than mine, so he grabbed her wrist, catching her.  
“Just hold on okay? I promise I won’t let you fall.” Gray told her. We both helped her up back to where we fought. She laid on the ground and we sat by her.  
“Why’d you save Juvia?” she asked.  
“Just cause…” I looked up to the sky, and the rain clouds started disappearing.  
“The rain… it stopped.” Juvia muttered. “The blue sky, Juvia’s never seen it before.”  
“The sunshine is very pretty.” I commented, smiling into the sun.  
“It is… it’s truly, beautiful.”  
“So, you wanna go at it?” Gray asked Juvia, which I think caused her heart to stop. “Hey!” he shouted, as she finally fell unconscious.  
“What kind of question was that?”  
“I meant a second fight? I didn’t think she’d faint.”  
“Don’t say it again. Please.” I sighed.

“Gray! Kairi!” Mira and Elfman shouted, running towards us, the two of us stood up as they reached us.  
“What’s Mira doing here?” Gray asked, I shrugged as the answer was unknown to me.  
“So another one of Element Four is down?” Elfman asked looking at the unconscious female. “There’s only one left, if we can defeat him, I think it’ll stop the giant.” Mira explained.  
“The energy of Element Four is what’s supporting it.” Elfman added, he turned around, looking at the magic circle the giant was creating. “See, look at it now.”  
“Yeah, it’s definitely drawing the magic circle slower than before.” Gray replied. I nodded, looking at it myself.  
“So we were right.” Mira added.  
“Fire, Water, Air and Earth.”  
“Just like we were saying. The giant and the spell get their power from the Elements.” Elfman explained.  
“That’s the true combined power of the Element Four. Three have been defeated; Totomaru of the Great Flame was taken out with Jupiter, Elfman totally annihilated Sol of the Great Earth and Juvia of the Great Sea was taken out of the equation by the two of you.” Mira added.  
“So there’s one left?” I asked.  
“If we stop him, we’ll stop the giant from casting the spell.” Mira confirmed  
“Do you have any idea who the last element is?” Gray asked.  
“Aria of the Great Sky.” Mira replied. “And he’ll be the toughest to be beat. He’s the strongest member of the Element Four. He’s also the one who drained the Master of his magical energy, leaving him powerless.”  
“Then Aria’s gonna pay.” I frowned, staring at the giant’s magic circle.  
“Well we better help before Aria shows his eyes in battle.” Mira started.  
“His eyes?” Gray asked confused.  
“Yes.”  
“What’s so special about them?” he continued.  
“Evidently Aria keeps his eyes covered with bandages, he does this because it helps to control his overwhelming magical power.” she explained.  
“His magic is in his eyes?” I asked, double checking. She nodded.  
“That’s right. So when we find him, we have to beat him before he opens them, because if that happens, we don’t stand a chance.” beside me, both Gray and Elfman looked at each other in return.  
“I get first dibs if we do find him.” I stated, but before we even moved, the magic circle started glowing brightly. “No, are we too late?” I wondered out loud. It shone brightly for close to a minute before it disappeared, and the giant started shaking as it lowered itself.  
“Now what?” Elfman asked.  
“Natsu must’ve beaten Aria.” Gray replied.  
“Yes, we did it!” Mira grinned, cheering. “We stopped the Abyss Break spell from being cast! All the members of Element Four have been defeated.”  
“That’s great, but does it have to shake?” I asked, tumbling to the ground on my knees, I lost my balance but Gray helped me up and assisted me in keeping my balance.  
“We did it.” he smirked at me.  
“Yay.” I laughed, waving my hands around. We were trying to find Natsu within the huge building, when an intercom sound rang out loud. The four of us stopped to listen.  
“Attention you pathetic Fairy Tail worms, listen carefully because I’ll only say this once.” he paused, but then a pain induced scream from a girl followed after.  
“Lucy!” I shouted as soon as I heard it.  
“There’s no way that wasn’t her.” Elfman spoke.  
“Oh no…” Mira worried.  
“We have captured your precious Lucy Heartfilia, which means our first order of business is now out of the way, and that leaves us with just one more thing… my favourite part, wiping all of you miserable brats right off the face of the Earth.” he finished talking.  
“Just you wait Jose. I’m gonna kill you!” I shouted angrily.  
“Let’s keep looking for Natsu.” Mira suggested. I huffed out, but reluctantly nodded, following after them.  
“If we see Jose, he’s going down. For Lucy, and for Fairy Tail.”

We made it to a big hall and the first person we saw was Erza, sitting against the wall, looking completely worn out.  
“Erza?” Mira asked. She opened her eyes and looked at us.  
“Are you okay?” I questioned.  
“Man, it looks like something big went down.” Elfman commented looking around.  
“It’s you.” Erza coughed out.  
“Why are you here, you’re injured?” Gray scolded.  
“Yeah, you don’t look that great.” Mira commented.  
“Whoa.” Elfman suddenly gasped. We looked at what he was staring at.  
“It’s Aria!” Mira exclaimed. He was lying on the ground unconscious. Aria was an extremely tall and massive man with tanned skin. He didn't seem to have visible hair, and possessed a rectangular, elongated face with prominent cheekbones, which had his rounded chin jut downwards, something that somehow negated the somewhat angular look his face would’ve had otherwise. A thin, vertical dark line was present on the chin, crossing its whole length up to his lower lip, and his nose was flat. Aria possessed wide dark eyes topped by thin dark eyebrows, which I supposed were usually hidden away by a blindfold, which he used to restrain his power. His limbs were quite small and especially thin in comparison to the large mass of his body; nonetheless, his hands seemed to be well-proportioned. Aria's massive upper body was covered by a large, loose green coat sporting white edges, which was closed around his neck, sporting a wide and high collar, but left open on the front below it, revealed a pale red, similarly loose and ruffled shirt, with its high collar, split in three horizontal straps circling Aria's neck, being held closed by an equal amount of buttons, one for each strap. Appearing from below such shirt was a similar robe, seemingly yellow in color, which almost reached down to his feet, revealing an extremely loose pair of pants with prominent hems and a pair of simple, dark shoes. Aria's outfit was completed by a top hat sitting on his head, matching his coat in color.  
“You got shot by that cannon, and still fought this guy?” Elfman asked.  
“What the heck were you thinking?”  
“You beat him on your own?”  
“Natsu did help.” she replied. “But now he’s saving Lucy, like I asked.” Erza commented. “I must admit, I never wanted anyone to see me in this retched state. I guess I still have a lot to learn.”  
“Hey Erza, you’ve done so much for us today.” I smiled, but that smile didn’t last as a dark power surrounded the room we were in.  
“What is it?” Mira asked curiously.  
“I sense death.” Erza muttered.  
“I don’t like this feeling.” Gray added.  
“Whatever it is, it’s pure evil.” Mira spoke. Clapping could be heard from the door to the room, quickly we all looked to see Jose Porla. Jose was a tall, slim man with long, straight, black hair reaching down to his shoulders and a thin mustache, which seemed to have a dark reddish tone. He had a long and sharp face, vaguely pointed ears, prominent eyelashes and dark-colored lips. His outfit seemed to almost be militaristic; it consisted of a long, grayish coat closed on the right side of Jose’s chest by a belt circling his waist and by another one going over his right shoulder, sporting Phantom Lord’s symbol on its buckle; the coat had wide golden stripes going down from the high collar, which sported a pair of large rings hanging from it on the front, to the cuffs, with other golden parts in correspondence to the closure and below the waist, on each side. His Wizard Saints medallion was still visible on the same spot, but had dark ribbons hanging from it instead. Covering Jose’s left arm was a brownish cape, sporting a wide golden-colored stripe near the edges and some small shield-shaped ornaments placed at the same distance from one another. The outfit was completed by loose pants tucked inside boots.  
“Bravo.” he greeted. “You’re all quite keen, very impressive Fairy Tail Wizards.” he was surrounded by his physical magic power, dark energy pulsated from him. “I knew this would be fun, but never in my wildest dreams, did I think it would be this entertaining. You annihilated the Jupiter Cannon, disposed of my elite Element Four, and you even managed to bring my magic giant to its knees.”  
“Master Jose.” Erza acknowledged.  
“This creep?”  
“He’s Phantom Lord’s Master?” the boys asked.  
“He’s giving off powerful magic.” I commented.  
“Thank you, you’ve been so kind to entertain me, I simply must return the favour.” he smirked.  
“You ready?” Gray muttered.  
“You bet.” Elfman replied.  
“I’ll return it in full.” the two boys ran towards him.  
“No! Don’t do it.” I reached out for them, but it was useless, their attacks were hopeless as they landed back behind us. The two boys were surely unconscious.  
“Elfman! Gray!” Mira cried out. Jose swiped his arm towards us girls, the impact sent Mira and I flying back too, but Erza dodged everything he aimed for her.  
“Fascinating, you took a shot from Jupiter in full force, did you not? Yet, you’re still standing.” he commented.  
“Only because my friends have filled my heart with strength. I will withstand any physical pain, to protect the ones that I love.” she replied.  
“Powerful, courageous and exquisitely beautiful. Destroying you, will bring me unbelievable pleasure.” he smirked.  
“And destroying you, will be the best thing that’s ever happened to me!” I shouted, standing back up from the rubble. “Erza, you’ve done enough. Saving us from Jupiter, defeating Aria… now it’s my turn to help. I’ve got a lot to give payback for.” I glared, stepping forward. Erza looked back to me, and her gaze followed me as I passed where she stood.  
“Be careful.” Erza muttered, sitting back down exhausted.  
“I will.” I replied softly. “Alright Jose, let’s see who’s stronger.” I glared. I held my magic out by my side, creating dark balls of water, just then the building shook immensely.  
“My… what an unruly dragon you have.” Jose chuckled.  
“He may be unruly, but he’s a powerful dragon, and wizard. In fact, he’s probably stronger than me.” I admitted.  
“No need to be so modest, Kairi Dreyar, your magic is just as spectacular as Salamander’s. You’re the first wizard to last this long against me.”  
“We haven’t even fought yet.” I replied.  
“Exactly.” he smirked. “You know… there’s something that really irks me about Fairy Tail…” he paused. “The fact that there are so many powerful wizards like yourself and Titania Erza, who aligned with Makarov!” he placed his right hand in front of him, I narrowed my eyes watching him, but then he flicked his hand. I was suddenly flying back into the wall across the room. I landed with a yelp.  
“Kairi!” Erza shouted after me.  
“Since you can’t be tempted to join Phantom Lord there’s only one way to change that.” he sent four more of the same things he just sent towards me. I dodged them in time, jumping up into the air.  
“**_Water Punch!_**” I shouted, aiming for Jose. “That was for attacking our guild the first time!” I landed on the ground, Jose aimed for me again, seeming unfazed with my hit. I ran to the left, barely dodging. “_**Water Slicer!**_ That was for allowing Black Steel to hurt Levy, Jet and Droy!” he dodged all of my attacks.  
“Killing you, will send the old coot into despair.” Jose smirked. “Imagine how he’ll feel when he wakes up to his guild hall destroyed and his precious children dead and gone. He’d be lost, completely consumed by sorrow.”  
“**_Water Cyclone Beam!_** This is for kidnapping Lucy!” I shouted, aiming directly for him, but he disappeared and reappeared behind me when I stopped.  
“As long as I can remember Phantom Lord has always been at the top, we have the most powerful wizards and the strongest spells, we also have more members than any other guild; however recently Fairy Tail has begun to catch up and our position as leader is in jeopardy. The names Erza, Kairi, Laxus and Mystogan became widely known and stories of Salamander spread across the land like wildfire, now Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail are considered equals, the top two guilds representing this kingdom.” he scoffed. “The thought disgusts me. I refuse to be acquainted with such a feeble guild!”  
“Shut up!” I shouted. “Are we fighting for our lives because you’re jealous of the success of a guild?”  
“Jealous? That’s absurd. We simply wanted to prove to the kingdom that we were the dominant guild.”  
“How dare you! What a petty reason. Your guild sucks, all your ‘good’ members are down for the count. _**Water Slicer: Double!**_” water, that was longer in length and width, were going directly to him, but he side stepped them all. I kept throwing more and more until I became too focused to realise he was behind me. He surrounded me in Darkness Magic, and it squeezed until I screamed. I closed my eyes in pain.  
“Look at what my magic is doing to your pathetic guild hall.” Jose laughed. I opened my eyes, all I could see was a magic screen showing me a huge black ball of magic continuously knocking the guild hall down. I saw the fighting Guild Members now cowering in fear, unable to stop it. I couldn’t look away as tears came to my eyes.

_“Gramps?” I asked quietly, watching him do paperwork at his desk._   
_“Yes, child?” he replied._   
_“When do I get to join Fairy Tail?” I questioned._   
_“When you are Laxus’ age.” he answered._   
_“Huh? But that’s years away!” I shouted wide eyed._   
_“Those are my rules Kairi. Kids that are too young are in too much danger.” he explained._   
_“Hmm… danger’s my middle name.” I grinned._   
_“I know it is, it’s one of the reasons of why I’m saying no.” he smiled at me. That made me grin even wider._   
_“I can’t wait to be in Fairy Tail, Gramps. I’m going to be a strong wizard, like you. Fairy Tail is the best_   
_guild in Fiore.”_   
_“Have I mentioned why Fairy Tail is called what it is?” he asked, placing his pen on the table. I thought about it and shook my head._   
_“Nuh uh.”_   
_“Well let me tell you. Have you ever seen a Fairy?” I shook my head again._   
_“No.”_   
_“Do you know if Fairies have tails?”_   
_“Do they?”_   
_“Nobody knows, do they even exist? Like them, this place is an eternal mystery… a never ending adventure.”_   
_“Wow, how do you know that?”_   
_“My father was a founding member, your Great Grandfather.” he replied._   
_“Wow. Gramps that is so cool.” I smiled. “Fairy Tail is home, even if I’m not a member, it’ll stay in here, right?” I pointed towards my heart._   
_“Always.”_

Before me, I watched as the guild hall completely broke down, it disappeared from sight lying flat on the ground.  
“I don’t particularly like your guild, but that’s not at all what triggered this war.” Jose spoke, watching me. “We were hired by the patriarch of the Heartfilia Family to find his missing daughter.”  
“Lucy…” I grunted out.  
“The child of one of the kingdom’s wealthiest men is now in Fairy Tail, so Makarov’s trying to buy his way to the top, isn’t he?” Jose shouted, adding more power to my confinements. I screamed again. “Now that your guild has access to the Heartfilia Family fortune, it’s only a matter of time before that happens, that is… if we don’t completely wipe you out first!”  
“Y-You’re wrong!” I shouted. “We only found out who Lucy was when we saved her. Lucy has no fortune left to her anymore, she ran away!” I exclaimed. Jose’s face widen in shock.  
“You’re incredibly misinformed about Lucy.” Erza spoke.  
“What?”  
“She came to us as a runaway. She doesn’t have access to her own fortune, let alone us.”  
“Lucy rents a place for 70,000 Jewel a month, she works hard each month to make that kind of money, she fights with us, she laughs with us and she cries with us. She’s no different than the rest of us!” I explained. “She’s the reason why we’re fighting, and we’ll keep fighting for her! She may be the daughter of the Heartfilia Family, but just as flowers don’t get to choose where they bloom, children don’t get to choose their parents! You don’t know anything about Lucy, or the tears that she has shed!”

_“That’s not gonna happen!”_   
_“Like any guild would hand over one of their own to a monster like you!”_   
_“You hear that! Lucy’s staying put!”_   
_“Yeah!”_   
_“I won’t ask again.” Jose spoke._   
_“Then leave!” I shouted. “Lucy Heartfilia stays with us!”_   
_“We would never betray her like that! You’d have to kill us first!” Erza shouted from the ground._   
_“You can stop asking now, because we’re not gonna give her up!” Natsu added. “We’re taking every one of you jerks down!”_

“Well I’ll find out soon enough.” Jose continued, uncaringly. “I’m not going to hand her over to her father without reaping any benefits of some sort. I’ll make her my prisoner until her father meets my demands! I’ll bleed the Heartfilia Family of their fortune and their precious money-making business!” I screamed as he worsened the power again.  
“I. Won’t. Let. You!”  
“I’d stop struggling if I were you.” Jose cackled, summoning dark spirits. They were huge and hovered on both sides of me. It felt like they were draining the energy out of my body.  
“I’m not going to give in!” I shouted. “Water God’s-” thunder clouds crackled in the sky, halting my voice. The spirits disappeared. “…what’s going on?” Jose’s confinements disappeared too. I fell to my knees as I was released and began coughing from the tight pressure suddenly releasing me, and looked up, seeing Gramps standing there.  
“You have shed the blood of our children.” Gramps spoke. “And that is unforgivable. They have been made to suffer because of the incompetence of their parents, we are both to blame Jose. This war between us has gone on long enough. Let’s end this here and now.”  
“G-Gramps.” I teared up, he looked as he did before his magic disappeared.  
“Master.” Erza said softly.  
“If we fight, it could create a catastrophe.” Jose was creating magic energy around him. Gramps did the same, and I got out from in-between them to being on the sidelines with Erza.  
“In order to save my guild, I will gladly take that risk.” Jose threw magic at Gramps but his defence magic circles blocked it. “You kids need to get out while you can.” Gramps spoke.  
“Gramps!” Gray shouted. I looked back, the two boys were awake.  
“We’ll stay with you!” Elfman replied.  
“No, we have to do as he says.” Erza continued. She took my hand and ran with me following her. “Let’s go.” she said as we reached the others.  
“But Erza!” Gray retaliated.  
“If we stay, we’ll just get in the way.” Erza explained. “He can handle this, I have faith.”  
“Please, Gray let’s just go.” I coughed out. Gray looked down at me, he placed my arm around his shoulder and helped me run out with the others. We were running back down the hallways of the building, lightning was lighting up the sky, and it would be in reaction to Gramps using his magic.

The building started shaking as we made it outside, the clouds parted around the building’s area and the sun shone down brightly. A magic circle as big as the parted clouds appeared.  
“What’s that?” Gray asked, looking up.  
“Fairy Law.” I replied. The explosion, and the light blinded us, it was brighter than the sun.  
“What?” he repeated.  
“A spell that vanquishes darkness and brings sacred light, it only affects those who the castor sees as their enemy.” Erza explained. “Incredible, isn’t it?”  
“It’s one of the most legendary spells ever.” the light slowly dimmed, and we kept our eyes on the building.  
“We did it! We beat Phantom!” a collective shout was heard from the ground below.  
“Yeah, we really did.” I smiled. Gramps came out in sight for everyone.  
“We are victorious!” he shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear. “But I had very little to do with it! This victory is yours, my children!”  
“We couldn’t have done it without you!”


	13. Lucy, of Fairy Tail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy's feeling guilt from Phantom Lord attacking Fairy Tail because of her, and visits her dad.  
Kairi and the gang freak out because she left without saying anything at all.

The Guild Members all helped each other walk back to our ruined guild hall, where Gramps sighed at the sight of it. We all stood together, but the people closest to me, were Erza, Gray, Mira, Elfman and Natsu, with Happy too.  
“It’s in ruins… they really did a number on it huh?”  
“Master?” Lucy called out softly. We all looked to her, she was beat up pretty badly too. “I… I’m so sorry.”  
“Ah, child you’ve been through a lot lately, but don’t let it get you down.” he smiled.  
“Yeah, let’s see a smile Lucy.” spoke a voice we hadn’t heard in a few days.  
“Levy!” Lucy smiled back.  
“Yep, we’re back.” she giggled. Behind her was Jet, Droy and Reedus who looked pretty beat up as well, Reedus must’ve tried to help Lucy before she was taken the second time. “We beat Phantom Lord, so there’s no reason for you to be sad.”  
“Sure, they might’ve destroyed our guild hall, but we’re gonna build it even bigger and better.” Jet smirked.  
“I’m sorry we had you so worried Lucy.” Levy apologised.  
“No… it was all my fault.” she countered.  
“We’ve heard about your secret, but there’s not a single person in this guild who thinks you’re to blame.”  
“She’s right.”  
“Lucy.” Gramps spoke. “Though we may not be able to share our feelings of happiness and sadness completely, we do share them to some extent, that’s what happens in a guild, one person’s happiness becomes everyone’s happiness. One person’s anger becomes everyone’s anger, and one person’s tears becomes everyone’s tears. There’s no reason for you to feel guilty, so don’t cry, you should already know how much everyone cares about you.” Lucy began crying, and she covered her face with her hands. “Hold your head high my dear, because you are a proud member of the Fairy Tail family.” we all smiled together as Levy hugged Lucy tightly. “While, I’m glad everything’s worked out… I am worried about the Council, they’ll be furious, I’m sure.” Gramps said gravely.

Almost a week later, and everyone in Fairy Tail had been working on rebuilding the guild. Everything so far had been normal with the project, we weren’t sure how long that would last. Shortly after the fight ended, the Magic Council did come after us, we were confronted by the Rune Knights, the army. I remember Natsu tried running, but managed about two feet before they entrapped him. They rounded everyone up, and took us to a military post for extensive questioning. We endured days of interrogations but everything seemed to have blown over. From just guessing, the Council at least had some idea that we were ‘mostly’ innocent. Right now, I’d like to say that I was helping re-build but really I kept getting distracted, either by the idiots in this guild, or my own thoughts. Just now, the wooden poles Natsu was carrying were now covering his body, because he was playing around.  
“That’s what you get for carrying too much, you moron.” Gray insulted walking past, carrying his own few poles.  
“What’d you call me?” the two were immediately butting heads.  
“Oh dear… we’ll never get anywhere with those two.” Mira sighed as she walked passed, I nodded in agreement.  
“Cut it out!” Erza shouted, knocking the two on the head. “Get back to work. Now!” she ordered. “We’ve got a lot to do, so no more lolly gagging.”  
“Aye…” they croaked out. I turned my gaze back trying to fix my job of the day. Since working on re-building the guild, I’d been wearing a pair of tight black trousers, a white tank top with a grey zip-up hoodie over it. I stuck with my brown combat boots because those shoes were more appropriate, and as I worked, I usually ended up tying my hair up in a messy ponytail to keep it out of my face.

“Hey Kairi, need some help?” Gray asked from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and smiled.  
“Sure, thanks.” he helped bring over more materials for us to fix the stone walls. Gray was shirtless, only wearing his baggy trousers as usual.  
“You know… when you fight, you’re no longer that shy little kid.” Gray spoke, starting a conversation.  
“Huh?” I hadn’t been expecting that.  
“And that just proves how unbelievable it is that you’re strong. Those silly faces you make.”  
“Are you making fun of me?” I asked, frowning.  
“Never.” he grinned, looking down at me. “I wouldn’t risk death by making fun of you.”  
“Oh yeah?” I smiled.  
“Yeah, you’re scary. Remind me to never get in between you and anyone in Fairy Tail.”  
“I wouldn’t hurt you, ever.”  
“You talk to Gramps about what happened to your magic?”  
“He’s avoiding me, I barely get one second alone with him.” I replied.  
“Maybe when the guild’s rebuilt?” he suggested.  
“Yeah…” I looked up to see Gramps working. “Maybe.” I turned back to look at what we were working on, and Gray had leaned in super close. His face was two inches from mine. I blushed and tried moving away from his face, but his lips briefly touched mine. In the distance, I swear I heard a displeased squeal, but I was too embarrassed to even look for any sign of who it was. “Hey, don’t do that.” Gray just laughed, but didn’t say anything.

Hours later, most of us were on a break, resting down before we did anymore work.  
“Man… I’m starving…” Natsu groaned, while stretching his arms up high.  
“Aye…” Happy agreed.  
“When’s lunch?” Gray asked.  
“Whenever you get it.” I replied, next thing I knew a spout of water hit me, and the boys. “What the hell was that?” I asked, looking in the direction it came from. We were all in drenched clothes, but now Gray was holding something.  
“A lunch box!” Happy exclaimed.  
“Wow, where’d it come from?” he asked, opening it up. I looked over his shoulder to see what was inside. Inside, the food was arranged to somehow look like Gray’s face, and the word ‘love’ was etched onto a sandwich. Gray freaked out, placing the food on the ground, trying to get away from it.  
“Oh wow!” Natsu exclaimed. “That looks tasty!”  
“That’s awesome, your face is totally edible.” Happy grinned.  
“Who the hell made that?” I asked, shuddering slightly.  
“Didn’t you?” Gray asked.  
“Me? I’m not crazy!” I replied.  
“I-I can’t eat this, that’s crazy!” he exclaimed.  
“I’ll eat it!” Natsu smiled. Natsu picked it up, already helping himself.  
“Don’t blame me if you get sick.” while Natsu ate the strange lunch, Erza marched up.  
“Who said you could take a lunch break?” she asked angrily, she looked at the food. “Hey? Is that supposed to be your face made out of food?” Erza picked out some of the food that created his face. “That’s pretty good, I could eat the whole thing.” she contemplated.  
“Maybe I should try it?” Gray wondered.  
“If you all die of some strange food poisoning, can we agree that I’m not a crazy girlfriend who makes food of her boyfriend’s face?”  
“What does it matter if we’re dead?” Happy asked.  
“It’ll make me feel better.” I replied.  
“This is pretty good, how come you never make me food on the regular basis?” Gray asked me.  
“I didn’t make it, and I’m not your slave, make your own food.” I huffed.  
“Hey. Can you guys do me a favour?” asked Loke. He was standing a few metres away from us. I looked over, he was holding Lucy’s Celestial Keys. “When I was in town, I found Lucy’s Keys, can you give them back to her?” he asked. I walked over and he handed them to me.  
“Thanks Loke. She’ll appreciate it.” I smiled.  
“Hey, we’ve been wondering where you had gone?” Gray asked curiously.  
“Have you been looking for the keys the whole time?” Natsu asked too. Loke kind of looked unwell, like he hadn’t been sleeping much lately. His skin was much paler than usual too.  
“Are you okay Loke?” I questioned softly. “You’re even paler than usual.”  
“I’m fine, just a little beat. You know, being a gentleman is pretty draining.” he laughed a little.  
“We haven’t seen Lucy around lately, she’s probably too sore to help out still.” Happy commented.  
“We should go and check on her, why don’t you come with us?” Natsu offered.  
“No thanks, I’ll pass.” Loke declined. “You know I’m no good around Celestial Wizards.” he turned to walk away.  
“Come on… this is Lucy we’re talking about.” Natsu replied, though I’m sure Loke didn’t hear it. “Natsu, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Just leave him alone.” Erza told him softly.  
“He didn’t look too good, I wonder if he’s alright?” I questioned. The others shrugged in reply. “Let’s go give Lucy her keys?” I added holding them up.  
“Yeah, let’s get out of here!” Natsu grinned, running off, and away from the construction site.

“Lucy!” Happy called out from outside. Natsu started climbing up the side of her house, straight to her window. Gray followed after him. I sighed, and Erza and I went through her front door. I was going to knock, but Erza just helped herself and opened the door. We came into her living area, but she wasn’t around.  
“What’s the deal?” Natsu asked, looking around.  
“Normally she’s all…” Gray trailed off.  
“Get out of here!” shouted a high pitched voice, but it was only Happy pretending to be Lucy.  
“I wonder where she is.” I questioned, looking around.  
“In the bath?” Gray muttered, heading towards her bathroom.  
“Gray! You can’t just go in there!”  
“I know I’m asking for it, but it has to be done.” he replied. He pulled back the curtain.  
“Not here.” Natsu replied, from inside the bathtub.  
“How’d you get in there?” Gray shouted.  
“She’s not home, can we please leave?” I asked.  
“It’s not the same being here without Lucy.” Erza sighed.  
“Nobody can yell like she can.” Happy moaned unhappily. The others were going through her personal things when I saw a piece of paper on her desk, it was just a lone piece, nothing else on it. I curiously walked over to her desk, but Happy knocked something over. I turned around to look at what had fallen. A bunch of unopened letters.  
“So many letters.” Erza muttered.  
“They’re still sealed.” Gray commented. Natsu picked one up and opened it.  
“Dear Mom, today was a very special day because I joined the Fairy Tail Guild.” Natsu spoke.  
“Hey man, don’t go reading her stuff.” Gray scolded.  
“I met the most beautiful wizard, named Erza who’s actually really nice and cool. She’s always yelling at Natsu and Gray. There’s a talking cat, who’s terribly annoying, but I never seem to stay too mad at him for long. My best friends Levy and Kairi are super cool wizards too.”  
“Are all of them letters?” Gray asked. “Addressed to her mom?”  
“Why doesn’t she mail them?” Natsu questioned, but he kept reading. I looked back to the paper on her desk and picked it up, and briefly read what she wrote. I gasped at the simple words.  
“Oh no.”  
“What is it?” Erza asked.  
“Lucy left a note for us, it says she’s going home.”  
“What?” they all shouted. “No way!”  
“We’ve got to bring her back.” Natsu declared.  
“Right, let’s go. We can catch a train to the Heartfilia Estate.” we quickly left Lucy’s house in a rush.

We got off the train that was close to the town of the Heartfilia Family, which was situated in the middle of some beautiful grassy green landscape.  
“Natsu, see if you can sniff her out.” I suggested. Natsu nodded, taking a few seconds of sniffing around, and then took a sharp left turn, and we all followed as he ran up a small hill. We reached the top, and Lucy was standing in front of a grave memorial.  
“Lucy!” all of us shouted at once. She looked to us, and we ran towards her. “Lucy!”  
“You’re here!” she shouted in shock. Happy flew right into her chest, knocking her down.  
“Why’d you run away?” Natsu asked. Lucy looked timid as she shyly explained why. She told us, she came back to try and talk to her father about her running away, and why she did it; which was mostly because he’d not once noticed or cared about her since her mother died, and she asked about the whole Phantom Lord issue too. Instead she truly just disowned him as her father as he still only cared about nothing other than himself.  
“We came here for nothing?” Gray asked, panting slightly.  
“Maybe?” Lucy laughed.  
“We didn’t come for nothing. Fairy Tail… no, we would never want you to do this alone.” I smiled, hugging Lucy. The Heartfilia servants came out to say goodbye one last time, as we decided it was time to go. The sun was beginning to set, leaving an orange glow on the horizon.  
“I’m really sorry guys, I didn’t mean to freak you out.” Lucy apologised as we walked.  
“There’s no need to apologise, we shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.” Erza replied.  
“Yeah, we thought you were going back for good.” Gray added.  
“Happy here was crying like a baby.” Natsu accused.  
“You cried too.” I laughed.  
“No, I did not.” he scoffed.  
“Yeah, you cried just as much as me.” Happy grinned.  
“Aw, is someone embarrassed.” Lucy teased.  
“You know, your hometown is pretty awesome.” Gray spoke, looking around at the houses nearby.  
“Yeah, it’s such a peaceful place.” Erza added  
“Oh, it’s not a town. This is just part of the garden.” Lucy replied, smiling. “The Heartfilia Estate goes all the way up to those mountains.” we looked to the mountains, which were much further away than they should be.  
“Are you serious?” I asked.  
“She’s rich!”  
“She’s acting like it’s nothing!” Lucy looked at us as slowly we all just died a little inside, but then she started laughing, as did all of us.  
“Let’s go home.” I suggested after a while.  
“Yeah, home sounds good.” Lucy smiled back.


	14. Loke, the Leo Zodiac Spirit

Days had passed now, we were still rebuilding the guild back to its former glory.  
”Listen up everyone!” Mira announced. “We’re taking on job requests again, starting today! You’ll have to excuse the mess while we’re under construction but at least you can get back to work.” she smiled, everyone around us smiled and cheered happily, eagerly heading toward our new job request board.  
“What up with them?” Lucy asked with a smile. “Most of the time these guys are just loafing around the guild doing nothing.”  
“They’re just excited.” I replied.  
“Have you or Mira seen Loke?” she suddenly asked.  
“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve fallen head over heels for Fairy Tail’s resident playboy?” Mira teased.  
“It’s not like that!” Lucy exclaimed, bashfully. “It’s just if he was the one to find my keys, I should thank him.”  
“We’ll tell him you’re looking for him, if we see him.” I replied.  
“So… were they mad at you?” Mira asked.  
“Who?” I asked.  
“Her spirits.”  
“Hmm… well you could say that…” she replied. “There was one who was really pissed off with me, Aquarius…” she shuddered, looking off into the distance. We kept talking but then a barrel was thrown our way, I looked over. Erza and Laxus were arguing.  
“Why don’t you tell the others how you feel?” she shouted.  
“What’s going on?” Lucy asked, I also heard Gray say the same from where he and Natsu were.  
“I have no problem telling them what I think of them. This guild is full of nothing but losers and weaklings. Especially the two of you morons.” he looked to Jet and Droy. “You were Phantom’s personal punching bags.” he sneered. “I’m glad I never bothered to learn your names!”  
“Laxus! Don’t be rude, it’s not like you helped us. Jet, Droy, don’t listen to him.” I called to them.  
“Oh really now. You know this mess wouldn’t have started if it wasn’t for her.” he looked to Lucy standing next to me. “The rich little princess wannabe wizard. This was your fault.”  
“Laxus!” Mira shouted. “Would you shut up? The Master said no one in the guild would be held accountable for what happened. Not even you, despite not helping us.”  
“Stop your whining!” Laxus exclaimed. “That fight had nothing to do with me.”  
“That fight had EVERYTHING to do with you, you’re a member of Fairy Tail!”  
“If I had have helped, we all know we wouldn’t be standing in this pile of rubble right now. I could’ve taken them out easy, but I wasn’t going to waste my time.”  
“I’ve heard enough out of you!” Natsu shouted, running to him. He aimed a punch at him, but Laxus disappeared, reappearing behind him through lightning bolts. “Come on Laxus, fight me like a man, you gutless coward!” Laxus just laughed.  
“How do you expect to fight me when you can’t even touch me? I can’t wait to inherit this place and kick all you losers out. Your days in Fairy Tail are numbered kids! Things are going to be a whole lot different around here. So you losers will need a new place to hang out.” he turned to walk away and then disappeared, leaving lightning bolts sparking.  
“What a jerk.” Lucy stated.  
“You’ve got that right…”  
“Why would anyone let him take over?” she asked.  
“We don’t have a choice Lucy, blood relations, remember?”  
“Oh! I totally forgot about that, so you mean he inherits it by fault?”  
“Most likely, besides Laxus is a strong wizard, and a strong guild needs a strong master. But he’s not the only contender for the next master.” I explained.  
“That’s right. Mystogan and Erza might be as well. Or even you Kairi.” Mira smiled.  
“No thanks. Sounds like I’d spend a lot of time with the council, especially if Fairy Tail keeps getting in trouble.” I sighed.  
“Well whether we like or it not, he’s at the top of a very short list of who could take the place of Guild Master.”  
“That seriously sucks.” Lucy replied. “It doesn’t seem right, someone who talks like about his fellow members isn’t worthy of being Fairy Tail’s leader.”  
“It’s been rumoured that Master Makarov refuses to retire for that exact reason.” Mira commented.  
“Wow, seriously?” Lucy asked surprised.  
“No one really knows.” I replied. Still behind us, Natsu was seething with a small anger, but then Erza told him to calm down and suggested something.  
“Let’s get your mind off of him, what do you think about taking a job?” she asked. “Gray, Kairi and Lucy can come along with us.” Erza looked to us. Gray, who happened to be in his boxers, recoiled slightly in fear, and Lucy let out a shriek.  
“Do what?” she shouted.  
“Gray, your clothes.”  
“We’ve all been working together since the Eisenwald incident, so I guess we’re a team of sorts now.” Erza explained.  
“It took her this long to figure it out?” Wakaba asked. “We all knew.”  
“Yeah, those guys have been joined at the hip for a while now.” Macao replied. “This is the first time she’s called them her team?”  
“So what about making it official?” Erza smiled. “The five of us working as a team…” she looked to Happy. “Six, if you include Happy.”  
“But are you sure you want someone like me on your team?” Lucy asked softly.  
“Not someone like you.” Natsu replied.  
“Lucy, it’s gotta be exactly like you.” I finished.  
“Aye!” Happy grinned.  
“It wouldn’t be right if you weren’t fighting alongside us.” Natsu smiled. Lucy blushed and smiled, with a short chuckle.  
“Now that they finally realise it, they’re officially our strongest team.” Cana added, speaking with Wakaba and Macao.  
“Is Lucy really one of our strongest?” Wakaba asked.  
“I know I’d be done for if she made that psycho Aquarius attack me.” Alzack commented.  
“She’s got a real sharp tongue too.” Droy added.  
“She’s one of the best in the guild.” Jet finished. Gray and Natsu were instantly glaring at one another. If you stared long enough, you could probably tell what they were thinking.  
“I already have a job lined up for us.” Erza explained. “Taking down an Arcane Cult in the Castle Town of Lupinus, you with me?”  
“Yeah!”

Days later we were back in Magnolia, and the guild wasn’t completely built yet, but it was looking a little nicer than before. The job in Lupinus went well, we completed it and we were given the money reward, except the reward money had to go towards the rebuilding of the buildings Natsu destroyed, so really… we didn’t actually get any of the reward money. Currently I was sitting with Cana at the construction site, we were sharing a table with Macao and Wakaba, all three were drinking from beer mugs, but I wasn’t interested in drinking right now, so I didn’t, but I was interested in listening to Lucy tell Mira about the problems we had on the job, all Mira did was smile and give a half assed sorry, because we all knew that it would happen. Natsu’s destruction was easily followed by Gray trying to one up him, and Erza’s brute force was always a backup… so no matter what the three of them were destruction machines. After Lucy complained about how she was never going to be able to pay her rent money if she always works with us, Mira offered her an easy job, without any fighting. After I heard what it was, I quickly refused by saying I was too busy. It was to help advocate a play in Onibus.

They arrived back home a week later, completely worn out. Lucy mentioned that they became the actors instead, and had to do three performances a day, because they were such a great ‘hit’. I was entirely glad I didn’t go, but it wasn’t like I did anything special myself, I spent my week continuously trying to talk to Gramps about the changes in my magic, but he kept dismissing me, and saying he was too busy. I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t actually use this magic to its full ability until I knew what was happening with it. I sighed, placing my chin on my hand as I watched Gramps talk to Mira about the construction work.  
“Hey Kairi.” Gray spoke as he sat down next to me.  
“Hey.” I replied, not turning my attention away from them.  
“Don’t ignore me.”  
“I didn’t, I added to the conversation.”  
“Barely, you added one word.” I looked at Gray.  
“Hey Gray.” I smiled. He just glared at me.  
“Fine, I guess I’ll go talk to someone else.” he went to stand up, but I grabbed his left hand with my right.  
“I wanna talk… I’m sorry. I’m just distracted. Tell me about the job you guys went on.” I smiled at him, as he took his seat again. Gray started telling me about the catastrophic play they had to perform countless times. “Sounds like hell.” I commented as he finished.  
“It was, and Erza wants to go on another one already.” Gray added.  
“Oh really? What kind?” I asked.  
“Taking on a group of thieves, bringing them down. That stuff.” he explained. “You gonna come this time?”  
“Well, it sounds better than the last one… but I’m not sure about using this magic.” I explained.  
“Still haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him?” I shook my head in reply. “Let’s go on this mission, and try afterwards.” he suggested.  
“Yeah… okay.” I nodded.

In the west of Magnolia, the town of Fort Term, the whole team and I had stormed through a small castle, home of the thieves, called Devon Thieves. We demanded to see the leader of the guild, but they refused.  
“_**Open! Gate of the Golden Bull. Taurus!**_” Lucy shouted, pulling out a new key I’d never seen her use before.  
“Moo! Lucy, I’ll always protect you!” Taurus spoke as soon as he came through. Taurus was an extremely tall, heavily muscular and athletic humanoid whose physical features were highly reminiscent of a cow. His body was covered in a black and white pattern similar to those of dappled cows, and the upper part of his body, seemed more massive than the lower half. His head was bovine in shape, with small, elongated ears jutting outwards from the sides of his head, and a pair of horns, testifying him as a bull. He had dark eyes, and his flat nose bore a large golden ring in it, similar to those carried by real bulls. His muscular chest bore a six-pack, with two large pectorals. The tail sprouting from his back, ending in a dark tuft, was quite small if compared to the large mass of his body. Taurus' massive body was mostly left bare: he was wearing a dark indument, similar to a pair of swim briefs covering his groin, held up by a red, studded belt, with a circular, thin, golden metal buckle. He also wore simple dark boots with lighter upper edges, a golden cowbell was attached to a collar around his neck. His forearms were wrapped in bandages. Crossing his chest diagonally and passing over his right shoulder was a large, plain dark belt closed by a simple buckle, to which Taurus attached a giant labrys to it. Taurus easily took out surrounding members, and Lucy and he high-fived.  
“That was great, just look at you go!” Lucy grinned, while the rest of us, started fighting too.  
“Man, these guys don’t put up much of a fight.” Natsu spoke as he punched a man into the wall nearby.  
“No kidding.” I replied, hitting one of the guys in the face, and he fell back.  
“So who did you losers steal from? Grannies? Little kids?” Gray asked.  
“Why are you acting like this is over?” coughed out one of the thieves. “You’ll be sorry, just you wait.”  
“Yeah, Lord Devon is gonna make you pay.”  
“I’m all finished upstairs.” Erza spoke from a stairway, she had gone up there as soon as we started fighting, and that was where we figured the leader was, so he was definitely down now.  
“Sweet! Nice work Erza!” Lucy smiled. One of the others that we’d beaten up had tried running away, but Erza caught him.  
“It seems like you haven’t learnt your lesson yet.” she glared, hitting him once, enough to send him unconscious. We looked around, we’d finished them all.  
“Well that was an easy mission.” I started.  
“It was almost a waste, I wanted a challenge.” Erza sighed, as we headed out of the hideout.  
“I wanna fight more.” Natsu sighed, unsatisfied.  
“I know how you feel, but save it for the next one.” Gray replied.  
“Yeah, hopefully the next one will be at least somewhat challenging.” I suggested, hopefully.  
“Check out this gem I found.” Happy pulled a small diamond out from his pack placed on his back.  
“Stealing from thieves is still stealing!” Lucy exclaimed. We walked a fair bit away from the hideout when we saw Loke standing by himself on the pathway.  
“Hey, look its Loke.” Happy said, ignoring Lucy. He looked a little startled to see us, but wiped that expression away from his face quickly.  
“Hey guys.” he greeted as we got closer. “What are you doing?”  
“Just beating bad guys and being awesome.” Natsu replied.  
“Same old, same old.” Loke nodded coolly, but then his eyes landed on Lucy and he freaked out.  
“I’m glad we ran into you, thanks so much-”  
“Sorry! I better hit the road!” he cut her off, and ran away, leaving Lucy frozen.  
“What is his problem?” she shouted, recovering.  
“I don’t know what you did, but you really freak him out.” Gray told her.  
“Yeah, he avoids you like the plague.” Natsu added.  
“It’s not my fault he’s crazy!” she shouted, clearly annoyed.  
“To be real, I think it’s the relationship he had with another Celestial Wizard, whatever happened, has him freaked out over every one of them that he meets.” I explained.  
“Well… that’s not really fair, it’s not like I’m going to do whatever she did.” Lucy replied.  
“Yeah, we know.” I added.  
“Guess we might as well head home.” Gray suggested. All of us but Lucy nodded.  
“I don’t know… I was thinking since we finished this job early, what do you say we stop by a spa and take it easy?” she looked to us.  
“Lucy…” Erza started. The rest of us stayed quiet, mostly in fear of Erza killing Lucy for suggesting to relax.  
“Yes ma’am?” Lucy asked.  
“I think that’s a… fine idea.” Erza smiled. We all simultaneously let out our breaths. “Let’s head to the Spa Town, Hosenka.” Erza suggested, walking off. “It’s not far from here.”  
“That could’ve ended worse.” I spoke.  
“Agreed.” Gray replied, walking alongside me.

We reached Hosenka, which was the most popular Spa Resort in all of Fiore, within the hour. The place was famous for its hot springs. We booked a shared room for all of us. Lucy and Erza were eager to go into a hot spring, and dragged me along. Lucy and I were in some bought swimwear from the shop by the lobby room. Erza who felt most at ease in her armour, relaxed in the hot spring with her armour still on.  
“This is great!” Lucy sighed in content. I hummed in agreement, lowering my body enough so my shoulders were under the hot water.  
“The moon is nice tonight.” Erza commented, standing up. “The bath is nice too.”  
“Why are you wearing your armour?” Lucy asked, who didn’t, and wouldn’t know the answer.  
“I’m more relaxed with it on.”  
“Really? Doesn’t it feel kind of… weird?”  
“Well, now that you mentioned it, it does.” Erza replied. “I may need to reconsider my definition of relaxation.”  
“Taking it easy, isn’t you Erza.” I laughed, but Erza glowed slightly for a second, and was wearing a bathing suit when it disappeared. We soaked for a short while, and soon decided headed up to our shared room. We were given complimentary robes to wear during our stay, and we all wore them over our swimwear. Natsu and Happy came into the room, with pillows.  
“Let’s get this party started.” Natsu grinned, who was wearing his favourite scarf around his neck still.  
“Aye!” Happy agreed, wearing his own tiny robe.  
“Come on… I’m trying to sleep here.” Gray groaned from his futon. “Why don’t you take your party outside?”  
“It’s a sleepover! You know what that means right? You gotta bust out your Pillow-Fu! Or are you too scared?” Natsu accused.  
“Of you? Yeah right.” Gray replied.  
“My arsenal is equipped with the most powerful pillows.” Erza commented, grabbing her pillows.  
“Most powerful?” Lucy asked.  
“Whatever Erza, you’re going down!” Natsu shouted, throwing a pillow her way, Erza dodged it and it hit Gray in the face. He stood up.  
“You’re in for it now! Oh… would you look at all these pillows?” he grinned.  
“That’s cheating! How’d you get so many pillows?” I asked, as he threw one at me, I moved out of the way, and grabbed it throwing the pillow at Natsu, hitting him in his stomach. Gray threw another at Natsu, hitting him in the face. The two hits pushed him down.  
“You’re next Erza!” Gray shouted, but Erza blocked it, throwing it back towards me. I heard Lucy laugh, and was determined to join in, but too many pillows to the body sent her through the open doors to the garden, after that she vowed to not join in. I think Lucy even went for a walk while we continued in the silly pillow fight, after Happy got hit, he left too. It wasn’t long after they left that we actually stopped.  
“Wonder how long Lucy and Happy will be?” Natsu asked, as he set up his bed.  
“Maybe an hour? We can’t really know.” I replied. Gray reset his bed, and placed another next to Natsu’s. Erza had already set up her bed, and placed another nearby for Lucy.  
“Goodnight everyone.” Erza started.  
“Goodnight.” I replied.  
“Night.” Gray added.  
“Yeah.” Natsu muttered, already half asleep and in his bed.

Early the next morning, we headed for Magnolia. Lucy had been in a sombre mood the whole time after she made it to the room last night, which continued even as we made it to the guild. Natsu and Gray fought and fought over who won the pillow fight, they were even fighting now, as Mirajane and Elfman watched.  
“What’s with the two of them?” Elfman asked, slightly confused.  
“Evidently, they both were hurt during a pillow fight after their last job.” Mirajane explained.  
“If they’re that banged up, then those pillows must’ve been filled with bricks.”  
“It was just a pillow fight, what were you getting so worked up about?” Gray shouted.  
“I give everything 100%!” Natsu shouted back.  
“Oh, like when you 100% lost?”  
“I was awesome, you’re the one who lost!”  
“Lucy!” they shouted together. “I won the pillow fight, right?” they asked the blonde who was sitting by the bar, alone. She turned around and glared at them  
“Put a sock in it.” the two recoiled from her obvious death glare.  
“Sorry. We’ll be quiet now.” they apologised.  
“Wow… I thought Erza was the only one who could keep those two in check.” Mira commented, muttering to herself.  
“She’s been in a sour mood all day, so it’s no surprise.” I added. The two boys walked away, feeling a little rejected by the blonde. I followed after them with a smile.  
“Neither of you won, because Erza and I clearly won.” I told them.  
“As if!” Natsu shouted.  
“Yeah, there’s no way you girls beat us!” Gray retaliated.  
“It’s obvious. You two are the losers.” I smiled, with a chuckle.  
“Ha! You wish!” Natsu yelled.  
“I don’t need to, I already know.”  
“You’re gonna pay for lying.”  
“Wait, what?” my smile disappeared.  
“I know you’re ticklish.”  
“Eh? Gray, you told him?” I squealed, as they both placed hands in my most ticklish places, my waist and around my elbows. “Ah, no. Don’t, stop.” I squealed, beginning to laugh.  
“Not until you say we won.” Gray smirked.  
“N-Never.” I shouted.  
“Then suffer!” Natsu exclaimed. They kept tickling me, but they stopped when they heard Mira cry out. It seemed everyone in the guild, was kind of having a freak out.  
“What’s going on?” I asked, catching my breath.  
“It’s Loke.” Natsu explained. “Mira said he’s left the guild.” Natsu’s dragon hearing really did come in handy sometimes.  
“What?” Gray and I asked simultaneously.  
“No way, Loke would never leave Fairy Tail.”  
“Never mind that, let’s look for him.” Natsu suggested.  
“Yeah, it’d be best if we split up too.” Gray added.  
“We should tell Lucy too, I think she went home after you guys annoyed her. I know she’d want to help.”  
“Alright, I’m gonna get the whole guild looking for him.” Natsu explained.  
“We’ll visit Lucy, and then spilt up.” Gray finished. We ran off into the direction of the Lucy’s apartment, and once we reached there, Gray barged in, opening the door. Happy was here with Lucy too. “We’ve got bad news Lucy.” Gray started, and Lucy squealed from the uninvited intrusion.  
“Loke’s decided to leave the guild, and then ran away.” I finished.  
“Did he say why?” she asked.  
“No, we don’t have a clue, everyone’s out looking for him now.”  
“He’s been acting weird lately, but no one expected this.”  
“Maybe I’m right…” Lucy muttered, she stood up from her bed and ran out the door, leaving us behind.  
“Hey, where are you going?” Gray asked. “Lucy? Do you know something we don’t?”  
“Just let her look, we should too.” we left her apartment, and started calling out Loke’s name.  
“Loke?” I shouted, looking down alleyways.  
“Loke? Come out!” Gray shouted, searching through anything and everything. I could hear Erza and Natsu through the city, and nearby us Mirajane and Elfman were looking too.  
“Loke!” I repeated. It was getting late now, but we saw no sign of him.  
“Let’s go back to the guild for now.” Mira suggested. “I’ll make you all some food, and we can try searching again in the morning.”  
“Sounds great.” Gray sighed, I nodded softly as I sighed too. We really had no idea where he went, and why he left. Mira cooked us some easy food, and we all quickly ate, but we never left the guild, and stayed here the whole time, just in case someone came back with him.

In the morning, someone did, but definitely not in the way we expected.  
“You’re a Celestial Spirit?” were the first words out of Natsu’s mouth. It kinda broke the silence that had overcame all of us since sharing the news.  
“No way, really?” Happy asked. We all stared at our friend as he sheepishly smiled at us.  
“Sorry, I didn’t tell you before.” Natsu kept walking around Loke, seizing him up with his eyes.  
“Gotta say, I’m surprised I never caught onto you.” Gray commented.  
“How come you’re not a cow, or a horse or a crab, you’re just a dude.” Natsu asked.  
“Well he’s not Taurus, Sagittarius or Cancer.” I replied. “Also Cancer and Sagittarius are humans with animal features.”  
“Virgo’s got a human form. It’s not like we’re all animals.” Loke added.  
“You say that, but I saw her turn into a gorilla!” Natsu exclaimed, talking about the monster-sized Virgo.  
“She’s not really a gorilla.”  
“Loke’s actually a lion spirit.” Lucy explained.  
“A lion is a grownup cat right?” Happy asked excitedly.  
“Yep, you got it.” Loke replied.  
“Don’t lie to him!” Lucy shouted.  
“Shouldn’t you be resting back up in the Celestial World?” Gray asked.  
“I’m doing a lot better than I was.” Loke explained to us, that the reason why he looked so dreary and sick, was because he couldn’t step foot back into the Celestial World until last night. It had been three long years since he’d been banished for turning against his old Celestial Wizard and unwittingly caused her death. Lucy saved his dying life last night. “I just wanted to come say hi. Well that… and I couldn’t wait to see Lucy again.” he smirked, and Lucy blushed. “So excuse us…” Loke walked over to Lucy and picked her up bridal style. “We need to have a little chat about our future together.” Lucy instantly protested, flailing her arms about.  
“So… that’s Leo the Lion…” I commented, smiling after them.  
“Oh man, I wish I had a Celestial Spirit…” Natsu complained, frowning.  
“What kind of spirit would it be?” Happy asked.  
“A dragon, duh!” Natsu exclaimed. “Cause then I could practice my magic on it!”  
“You don’t summon spirits just to practice magic on them.” I frowned, concerned.  
“Oh hey… actually I got you guys something.” Loke started searching through his coat pockets and pulled out a bunch of ticket passes. “Here you go.”  
“What are those?”  
“Tickets to this awesome beach resort, you did so much for me, it’s the least I could do.” Loke smiled. He gave us one each. “I already gave Erza her ticket, I hope you guys have a good time.”  
“Thanks Loke.” I smiled.  
“Come on. Chop, chop.” spoke Erza. “No lollygagging. Now hurry, or I’ll leave you behind.” we looked to Erza, who was already dressed and ready for a resort, with added luggage compared to what she usually brought anywhere we go.  
“Alright, I’m ready to go right now!” Natsu shouted. “Bring on the beach!”  
“Yeah, let’s go!” Happy added. Erza walked over to Lucy, who was saying goodbye to Loke one last time.  
“Are you ready to go? We’re ready to leave.”  
“You know something? I was just thinking… if I was ever in his situation… and I accidently caused somebody here to get hurt, or worse. I’d be just as torn up about it as he was, but I wouldn’t hold onto the guilt, because I know my friends would be there for me. If I ever needed to talk there’s always someone here at Fairy Tail. We’re really lucky you know.” as Lucy talked, she faced the opposite way of Erza. Natsu, Happy, Gray and I all got in closer, to listen to Lucy as she spoke.  
“Wouldn’t have said it better myself.” Lucy turned and smiled.  
“Come on… let’s get going.” Natsu shouted, breaking the soft atmosphere.  
“I can’t wait to get to the beach, and soak up some rays.” Gray commented.  
“Me too.” I smiled.  
“Now, let’s have some fun.” Erza smiled.

_I’ll never forget how happy Erza looked that day, she couldn’t stop smiling, but little did I know… that smile would soon vanish._


	15. Akane Resort Disaster

At the Akane Resort, we’d had nothing but fun for the last few days, none of us ever imagined actually getting to this resort. To be here you’re probably waiting for a very long time, because it got booked out very quickly. None of us could ever thank Loke enough for this amazing present. Right now, we were on the beach, and Lucy was riding the waves on a surfboard connected to a resort owned fish. I was riding the waves next to her, but I was using magic as my board, unlike her. I was wearing a two piece bikini, which was in a striped purple and white pattern.  
“Haha! This is so much fun!” Lucy cried out.  
“It’s so much better than being stuck at the guild hall all day.” I replied, just as loud. On the beach, Gray and Erza were hitting a ball back and forth between each other, and Happy was building this amazing sand castle.  
“Let me off this thing!” Natsu cried out, barely holding onto Lucy’s board.  
“This was your idea!” Lucy replied laughing. Lucy and I kept surfing the waves until Natsu really did end up puking, we both decided it was best to stop. But once we touched the soft, warm sand again, Natsu was raring to go, and he wanted to play a game of volleyball. The boys, including Happy, versus the girls. We girls won, of course whichever team Erza was on, was going to win.

“Let’s go into the casino!” Natsu suggested next.  
“Oh yeah! I totally forgot they have one of those here.” I smiled, nodding.  
“You guys go on ahead, I’ll catch up with you later.” Erza smiled, heading in the direction of our resort rooms.  
“See ya later Erza.” Lucy waved to her.  
“Bye.” she replied with a wave too. The rest of us ran towards the casino in a race to see who was the fastest.  
“I won! I won!” Natsu shouted, jumping up and down in the doorway.  
“You cheated.” Gray huffed out.  
“It was totally obvious! All of you were slower than slow.” Natsu laughed.  
“Happy flew you here.” I panted.  
“Yeah, none of us have flying cats.” Lucy complained.  
“Snooze you lose.” Natsu grinned, stepping inside the casino. We followed after him. The place was huge, though I had no doubt beforehand that it would be. Up by the roof of the room, there were tracks for one of the rollercoasters to come through on. The boys were eager to either win or lose some money, but Lucy and I were in awe of how pretty the room looked.  
“You know, now that we’re here I feel a little underdressed.” Lucy commented.  
“Agreed, maybe we should head up into the rooms and change.” we were in our swimsuits still.

Lucy and I went into our shared room and changed into something more casino-appropriate looking. I found a maroon coloured dress that was thin at the waist but was ten times wider at the hem. It was an old dress, something that would’ve been worn a long time ago, maybe when the first Guild Master was alive. The length was somewhat short, as it reached just above my kneecaps. I brushed through my hair that was dried with seawater all in it, and tied it up into a fancy bun.  
“Hey, maybe we can see if Erza’s up to coming down?” Lucy asked. She was wearing a long red dress, with a split up the side, and a ribbon tied around her neck and her hair nicely.  
“We can try.” I nodded.  
“Erza?” Lucy knocked on Erza’s door, and opened it immediately after. “Get out of the room. Come have some fun. Natsu and Gray are downstairs. Wanna go find them and play some games?”  
“Well, I do have nothing else to do…” she started. “Let’s go.” Erza glowed, and she was wearing a long purple halter neck dress, that had a pattern of roses in random spots. Her usual hairstyle of doing nothing, was pinned up into a bun.  
“So, how do I look?” she asked.  
“Uh… you look great, maybe a little on the glitzy side…” Lucy sighed.  
“Come on, both of you are pretty. Let’s go.” I smiled, Lucy and I walked away first and Erza followed soon after.

The three of us came down to the casino, and Erza suggested we go to a card table first, to start off with one of the simpler games. We all sat down at the table, I was in between Lucy and Erza, and we were just given our cards when explosions happened outside.  
“What was that?” I asked.  
“It sounds like the parade started outside.” a passer-by commented.  
“Makes sense.” Lucy added.  
“Yeah…”  
“At least it’s nothing we have to worry about.” I sighed.  
“Wow! Check it out, you totally got a straight.” Lucy said to Erza.  
“Looks like today is my lucky day.” Erza said smugly.  
“At least it’s someone’s, I got totally useless cards.” I complained, throwing my cards away. A new card dealer walked up, and swapped with the first one. A young man, with blond hair, arranged in a wavy look with bangs hanging above his forehead and had tan skin. He had somewhat dark beady eyes and a small 5-shaped tattoo could be located below his lower lip. He also had an earring with diamond ornaments attached on his right ear.  
“I have a feeling that this hot streak is just the beginning.”  
“Oh yeah?” Lucy asked.  
“In that case.” the dealer spoke. “I’ve got a special game for you folk’s tonight.” he dealt out cards, and I looked when he finished. The five cards he pulled out, spelt DEATH. “And while we’re at it, what do you say we raise the stakes a bit higher, sister?” he asked. Erza gasped, looking at the dealer.  
“It can’t be. Sho, is that you?”  
“So you do remember me.” Erza trembled.  
“You know him?” Lucy asked.  
“You, you’re alive.”  
“Alive?”  
“I-I mean…”  
“Erza, what’s wrong?” I asked, concerned. Before anything else happened, the lights went off in the building, then a gunshot went off.  
“A gunshot?” Lucy shouted, covering her ears.  
“What the hell’s going on?” I asked, and the lights came back on, but something was wrong. Everyone that had been in the room, was now missing.  
“Where’d he go?” Erza asked. She looked for the one she called Sho.  
“I’m right here, sister.” he was behind us, and holding a bunch of cards. He began dropping them, one by one, and hordes of screams were heard from them. The patrons of the casino had been sucked into the cards.  
“Oh no.”  
“He’s trapped them inside the cards!” Lucy exclaimed.  
“Help please!”  
“Cool, huh?” he asked.  
“You use magic?” Erza asked.  
“That’s right. You’re not the only one with powers anymore.”  
“But who taught you that?” Erza shouted.  
“Meow…!” magic circles appeared under Lucy and I, and some furry cat-like tails wrapped around us, trapping us.  
“Let them go!” Erza shouted.  
“Well… aren’t you all rosy.” spoke a female. I looked to see a woman of average height with a curvaceous figure. She seemed to have a cat-like appearance: possessing cat-like eyes, nose and mouth. Her brown hair was stylized into cat ears at her crown and tied into two ponytails at the base. Her face had four red whisker-like tattoos. She wore a yellow jacket with white stripes and black trimmings. She was also wearing a pink dress with a white bow tie on it and light-pinkish ruffles on the lower portion, a choker with a bell on it, and white leggings.  
“Millianna?” Erza asked. “You can… use magic too?”  
“It’s been a while, Erzy-Werzy.”  
“Please, let them go, they’re friends.”  
“A friend huh?” Millianna spoke.  
“We used to be friends of yours too, remember?” Sho asked. “Good friends.”  
“I-I do…”  
“We were very close, at least we were until you decided to betray us.” he accused. Erza trembled angrily.  
“Erza would never betray anyone she calls a friend, you have it wrong!” I shouted.  
“You should cut the dame a little slack pal.” spoke a voice of a person who wasn’t even here, but soon someone materialized. “Keep those emotions in check and everything will be real dandy.” this was a man possessing an average height, his most distinctive feature was his whole body form, which consisted of geometrical shapes and resembled blocks. He had black hair, an oddly-shaped chin, and had thick lips. He was wearing a royal blue suit with a white collared shirt and a red necktie. He also wore black, oval-shaped sunglasses, a boater hat, and a white scarf could be seen hanging loosely around his neck.  
“A blockhead?” Lucy exclaimed.  
“Very nice… life on the outside has been good for you, huh, doll?” he asked, he was speaking very mafia-like.  
“W-Wait a minute…” Erza spoke. “Wally?”  
“I’ve gone through some changes myself, the ol’ mad dog Wally you grew up with, has seen a lot since the old days. You see, I’m much smoother now.”  
“Was that supposed to be funny?” I muttered.  
“You practice magic as well?” Erza asked him.  
“Why are you so surprised?” echoed a voice, someone appeared right behind Erza. “It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it, of course you already knew that, didn’t you?”  
“Simon?” Erza turned around to look at him. This guy was very massive, tall and a muscular young man, with his overly large arms and hands appearing even larger compared to his extremely thin legs. Simon had dark eyes and a wide, rectangular face, with a flat nose and a noticeable jaw. His massive jaw was obscured by an armoured metal plate, bearing lines of studs on its upper edges and two side protrusions jutting upwards, plus a set of teeth-like ornaments, overall resembling a skeletal jaw. His left eye was covered by a simple, dark eyepatch, held up by an extremely slim rope, with a thin scar emerging from under it and going down diagonally on his cheek. The top of his head was covered in a light cloth wrapped around it, tied on the back, where a pair of long wrappings were left hanging over his neck, with another one hanging on the right side of his face; such headgear bore a great resemblance to a turban. The cat tails surrounding Lucy and I, caused Lucy to have an off-balance stature, and she fell over.  
“Erza! Who are these people? Why is he calling you sister?” Lucy asked.  
“He’s not actually my brother, but we all grew up together.” she explained.  
“What do you mean? I thought you said you grew up in Fairy Tail.”  
“This was before I joined the guild.”  
“She joined when she was eight.” I explained. “I assume these people are from before then.”  
“Why did you find me, what do you want?”  
“Really wanna know?” Millianna asked.  
“We’re here to take you back with us.” Wally added.  
“I’m begging you, please release my friends.”  
“Who cares about them?” Sho asked. “We want you, sister.”  
“You’ll care when I smash your face in!” I exclaimed, trying to struggle once more in these bindings.  
“Listen doll, don’t make this get ugly.” Wally spoke, and his rectangular arm turned into a gun. He aimed it at me, right at my forehead.  
“Kairi!” Lucy exclaimed.  
“If he shoots, it’s not going to hit me. Don’t worry.”  
“Don’t shoot, don’t.” Erza exclaimed, stepping forward, Wally changed his arm back, but instead one gun emerged behind Erza and shot her in the back.  
“Erza!” Lucy and I cried out.  
“Somebody help!” Erza fell to the ground, and Simon picked her up.  
“We got what we came here for. Let’s go home.”  
“Is she okay?” Sho asked worriedly.  
“She’s just taking a nap.” Wally replied.  
“Hold it, where do you jerks think you’re taking her?” Lucy asked. “I hope you know, you’re not gonna get away with this! Natsu and Gray will find you, and when they do, they’ll make you pay!”  
“Sorry toots, but those guys are gonna be out for a while, you get me?” Wally asked.  
“What?” I asked.  
“Those two were nothing but talk.” Simon replied.  
“But… that’s impossible!” Lucy shouted.  
“They’re sleeping the big sleep!” Wally finished.  
“Meow…!” Millianna pointed at us, making the binds bend our bodies backwards.  
“Hey Millianna… I scored something for you.” Wally announced, and he brought forth a sleeping Happy from a magic circle.  
“A kitty!” Millianna squealed.  
“Happy!” I shouted.  
“Sister…” Sho spoke. “I can’t believe you’re finally coming home… to the Tower of Heaven. I know Jellal will be happy to see you.” the group started walking away.  
“I’m not going to let you get away with this! No one messes with Fairy Tail!” I shouted. They disappeared in a magic circle. “Erza! Happy!” I screamed.  
“She’s gone!” Lucy exclaimed. “Where are they taking them?” Lucy started struggling to get out of the binding tails, but I just relaxed… and my body began turning into water, and the binds fell away as my body became a puddle of water, I moved to a free space and then returned to my regular self. I was trying to untie Lucy, but it seemed the more I tugged, the tighter it became, when her keys fell from inside her dress. “Yes!” Lucy grinned. “Pass me Cancer please?” Lucy asked. I rifled through her keys until I found the key with the zodiac sign of Cancer. “Open! Gate of the Giant Crab. Cancer!” nothing happened, no Celestial Spirit came forth.  
“Lucy…? Why didn’t Cancer come?” I asked, frowning.  
“I have no idea!” Lucy panicked. “Cancer? Come on! Fine, what about Taurus?” I repeated looking for the Taurus Key, but when Lucy called for him, he didn’t come either. “Loke? Please help!”  
“It’s like this crap magic is blocking the gateways.” I suggested, going back to trying to untie Lucy, seeing as her keys were officially useless.  
“Ah! Ow!” Lucy cried out.  
“Oh, I’m sorry!” I quickly moved my arms away from her.  
“No, it wasn’t you… it was under me.” she spoke. Lucy wriggled out of the way, and the person in a card under her apologised.  
“I’m sorry.”  
“You poked me?” Lucy asked.  
“Yeah, I just happened to have this letter opener in my pocket and I thought I might be able to cut my way through this thing.” he explained. “But I guess I accidently got ya.”  
“Oh, I’ll try that too!” spoke another person in a card.  
“Maybe we can get out?”  
“So… even though his knife is in the card, I could feel it…” Lucy lowered her head to the man with the letter opener. “Sir, I don’t know about this, but I get the feeling that objects inside the cards might be able to break through them.”  
“You think so? When I do this, does the knife look like it’s coming out?” he asked.  
“No, it’s still 2D to us.” I replied.  
“But if I felt it, which means it must have some kind of effect on what’s outside.” Lucy rolled back over on top of him. “Do me a favour, I need you to try and cut through this rope with it okay?”  
“I’ll give it a shot.” the rope broke shortly after and Lucy fixed herself upright.  
“You did it!” she picked his card up. “Thanks a lot, I owe you one.”  
“You’re welcome, you think you can help us out now?” he asked.  
“The only way we know how is to stop the person who cast the spell. And that is exactly what we’re going to do.” I replied. Lucy stood up. “We’ll save you, but we can’t do it right now!” the two of us ran through the room to the door.  
“We have to find the boys. That guy better have been lying!” Lucy shouted.  
“There’s no way they’d be seriously injured.”

We found the bar room which was absolutely destroyed and someone was sitting by, looking unconscious. It was… Gray!  
“What happened?” Lucy exclaimed. “Oh no!” the two of us ran to him, and knelt in front of him. “Snap out of it Gray! Talk to me!” I was hesitant to touch him, but Lucy placed her hand on his shoulder. “H-He’s cold.” she commented.  
“He’s constantly cold.” I replied. Lucy shook him slightly, and his body shattered in ice. Lucy squealed. “Y-You broke him…?” I squeaked.  
“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to break your boyfriend!”  
“There’s no need to panic!” soothed a familiar female voice. A few metres to our left, a body appeared from water, she was on the ground and leaning over something.  
“I remember you. Juvia, from Phantom Lord.” I glared. “What are you doing here?” I pushed Lucy behind me in protection.  
“Kairi! Wait!” Gray’s voice sounded distorted and faint. Gray’s body had been concealed underneath Juvia’s. “She’s not our enemy anymore.”  
“Yes, that’s right. Juvia pulled her precious Gray inside of her, to insure his safety.” she replied.  
“He’s not yours.” I muttered.  
“Isn’t that weird?” Lucy asked.  
“Are you jealous he was inside of me and not you?” Juvia asked Lucy. It seemed she still thinks  
Lucy was her love rival.  
“Uh… not really, no.”  
“This dude cast a darkness spell, so I created an ice decoy so I could distract him until I figured out a plan of attack.” Gray explained.  
“Juvia wanted to keep the real Gray safe from harm.” Juvia added. “So Juvia pulled him inside of her water lock until she was sure the danger had passed.”  
“Yeah, I couldn’t do anything in there, thanks to you the creep got away.” Gray accused. “Now what… do you know where everyone else is?”  
“They took Erza and Happy, and we haven’t found Natsu yet.” I explained, as I finished and angry shout followed by the sound of flames could be heard.  
“That’s him.” Lucy commented.

All of us ran towards the direction of the sound.  
“Natsu?” Lucy shouted, as we saw him.  
“What happened to you?” Gray asked. Natsu looked at us.  
“Hey! What kind of jerk shoots people in the mouth? I mean, someone could get really hurt!”  
“I’m sure that could kill anyone who isn’t you.”  
“Juvia agrees.”  
“I’ll show that blockhead!” Natsu shouted, he quickly took off, leaving us behind.  
“We need to follow him, before he really does leave us behind.” I explained.  
“Wait, does he even know where he’s going?” Lucy asked.  
“Natsu’s got a nose that puts wild animals to shame.” Gray added. We ran to try and keep up with him, but Natsu was always leaving us behind.  
“Hey, Juvia.” I started as the two of us ran next to each other. She looked at me. “I’m not sure how I feel about the Phantom Lord thing, but if you’re willing to help us save Erza, I’m willing to let it slide. And thanks for saving Gray.”  
“Juvia agrees, this will be a new beginning for us, but you’re the true love rival aren’t you?” she asked.  
“Maybe I am, but you can only rival in something you have a chance with. You don’t have a chance with Gray, not while I’m around.”  
“We’ll see about that.” Juvia replied.


End file.
